Rev. Linda Dolby
1 John 1:1-2:2 This summer Pastor Tracey is preaching a series of 6 sermons based on a book by Trevor Hudson called “Questions God Asks Us.” Since she is on vacation this week, she asked me to fill and preach for her on the topic from the book – Telling God about our sin. Not my favorite topic. Nearly 50 years ago Dr. Karl Meninger wrote a book titled “Whatever Became of Sin?” In it, he explains that problems of the day were caused by our tendency to not name our sins. He called the country to confession. Then, in 1969, came a book called “I’m Ok, You’re Ok,” which told us well, basically, that we’re ok. No need to grovel or naval gaze, because, well, we’re ok. Here’s my dilemma: On the one hand, I do agree that confession is good for the soul. We need to be honest to God and ourselves about our sin. Sin – which I define as anything breaks our relationships with God and one another – is a part of who we are. The world today says to us through the media – “Be all you can be,” “turn your scars into stars,” and “be happy, be positive, don’t be a negative Nelly.” Phrases that all deny our sin, our brokenness. On the other hand, too many people become bogged down thinking about their sin, their brokenness that they believe they are no good or that God could never love them. I was volunteering this week as the front desk receptionist at Lafayette Urban Ministry (or LUM). Every afternoon, from 2-4, people who need to sleep at the shelter that night come to LUM to receive a pass that will grant them shelter for that night. As you can imagine, we get an assortment of people – some more interesting than others. This week there was a man who was quoting the Bible and urging his fellow guests to attend church. One man said, “I can’t go to church. If I went to church the building would fall down.” I joined in and said that I’d been a minister for almost 40 years and I had never seen or heard of a church building falling down because of who entered it. Then he said, “I can’t go to church because I have all these tattoos.” – and he did up and down his arms, around his neck. He went on to say “people in church are judgmental, they don’t want me to be there.” And I just said, “Not all churches are that way,” but I think he really didn’t want to hear it because he was too busy judging himself as unworthy to enter God’s holy sanctuary. Here’s the way out of the dilemma, in the words of 1 John: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” The truth is we all sin. The truth is if we confess our sin, God will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Ah, but you may be thinking, “If God knows everything, if God is omniscient, then why do we have to tell God at all? God already knows the truth about me.” Well, yes…but. Until we are truthful to God about ourselves, that sin stands in the way between you and God. It’s as old as Adam and Eve hiding in the Garden, not wanting to tell God about their wrongdoing. Once there was a little monkey who climbed high up into a tree. When he got up there, he found a hole in the tree. In the hole he found a mirror. Oh what fun it was to look at himself in the mirror. To move the mirror around to see how it caught the sun. It was the marvelous thing he’d ever seen. He wanted to take the mirror home and show all the other monkeys its wonders. The problem was when he was holding the mirror, he couldn’t get his arm out of the hole. He was stuck. He had a choice, to stay high up in the tree with his marvelous mirror or to let go and go home. That’s who we are friends. We’re all little monkeys holding onto our mirrors, our sins, our brokenness and we are stuck. Turn, if you will, to page 766 in the back of the hymnal, to Psalm 32. Do you see verse 3? “When I did not declare my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long” What is standing between you and God? I know. Some of us are afraid of God. Some of us are hanging onto an image of an angry, judging God who is holding the Book of Life and writing down all our wrongdoings, I grew up with that image. But life became so much better when I was able to see, to know, to experience that God is love. You know what I think happens when we die? I believe I’ll get the pearly gates and God will be there, holding me. Together we will watch a movie of my life. And when I see the things I have done wrong, I will feel such shame. And God will say to me, “It’s ok, I forgive you, you are mine.” Psalm 32, verses 5 and 6: “I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; then you forgave the guilt of my sin.” Do you remember the book by Victor Hugo (which became a Broadway show and movie) by Victor Hugo, “Les Miserables?” Hugo describes the fall, the actual moral disintegration, of Jean Valjean, a common laborer who is sentenced to five years in jail for stealing a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. The ravages of his time in prison, which is stretched from five to nineteen years, have, as Hugo describes, withered his soul. Once released, Valjean's descent continues, as no one will give him work or even sell him food or shelter because of his criminal record. Hopeless and exhausted, he stumbles into the house of an old bishop, who greets him courteously and treats him as an honored guest. Valjean, though, steals the silver plates from the bishop's cupboard and flees into the night. The next day the police arrive at the bishop's house with the captured criminal and the silver. Valjean, naturally, is utterly dejected at the sure prospect of returning to prison. Confronted by the man who returned his generosity with treachery, however, the bishop astonishes both the thief and his arresters: "I'm glad to see you," he says. "But I gave you the candlesticks, too, which are silver like the rest and would bring two hundred francs. Why didn't you take them along with your cutlery?" As Hugo narrates, at the bishop's astounding words, "Jean Valjean opened his eyes and looked at the bishop with an expression no human tongue could describe." The bishop looked at him with the eye of the heart and did not see a thief, but a man, created in the image of God. And because of this Valjean is transformed. In that moment, Jean Valjean dies...and is reborn, and much of the rest of this long and turbulent novel is the story of the new reality which Valjean both lives and gives as a result of his encounter with transforming grace. “If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Not an apology, a simple “I’m sorry,” but confession, a profound this is my sin.” True confession allows the brilliant light of God’s holiness to fall on our sins, so that not one of them is hidden in the darkness. I John says it this way: “but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” Confession walks in the light of God’s truth about ourselves and our sins. It agrees with God. “These sins are terrible, I did them, I mourn them, I want to stop them. I don’t want to be merely forgiven for my past. I want to become pure and holy like my God.” If we do that, God is faithful and just and will forgive us and purify us. May it be so. Amen.
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Rev. Linda Dolby
Mark 8:31-38 The Son of man must indeed suffer, be rejected, and be killed. And you, and we all, must deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow where Jesus is leading—straight into suffering, rejection, and execution. This is the way to life. And it is the way of life of those whom Jesus trains to be his disciples. This is the hardest element of our Lenten journey. Everything in us personally and much within our culture teaches us to fulfill ourselves, stay out of harm’s way, and escape rather than walk into and among folks who are suffering. But Jesus says head straight into all of that. Because that’s where he’s going. Because that is where God’s kingdom is most manifest. And he’s going there not to help us escape it ourselves. But rather to show us the way, so we’ll keep going and show others the way. Frederick Buechner, the author, once said the Gospel is good news, is bad news, is very good news. Good news: the birth of Christ. Bad news: the crucifixion of Christ. The best news: the resurrection of Christ. Today’s gospel reminds of the old Jack Benny joke. He tells the story that once he was walking down the street and was suddenly confronted by a robber, pointing a gun at him, saying “Your money or your life.” (Now Jack Benny was widely known as being a tightwad.) Benny waited. The robber said, “Well, what is it?” Benny replied, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking.” Which will it be for you – your money or your life? I think that is what is meant by today’s sermon title: “Surrender of Die.” Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Not very good news. The cross is not just an unfortunate event on a Friday afternoon at the garbage dump outside Jerusalem; it's the way the world welcomed Jesus from day one. Herod tried to kill him when he was yet a wee one in swaddling. From his very first sermon at Nazareth the world was attempting to summon up the courage to render its final verdict upon Jesus' loving reach, "Crucify him!" Jesus is not remembered because he was born in a stable, had compassion on many hurting people, told some unforgettable stories, and taught noble ideals. The significant thing is that Jesus willingly accepted the destiny toward which his actions drove him, willingly enduring the world's response to its salvation. Arrested as enemy of Caesar, tortured to death as a criminal, Jesus was more than just one more victim of government injustice. He is not just an example that sometimes good can come from bad. Rather, as Paul puts it, on the cross Jesus was Victor: Jesus "disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over them on the cross." The cross was the worst form of execution - for the people of Israel and for the Roman Empire as a whole. Indeed it was a social faux pas to mention crosses or crucifixion in the presence of women and children of high social standing. Yet Christianity, in contrast to many of the other religions of the day, which celebrate the search for beauty, truth, and the good, has, at its center, this most awful symbol of death and disgrace. This must be dealt with - and understood correctly. I say this because with our gold and silver crosses adorning our altars, and worn as jewelry around our necks, some reduce bearing the cross to little more than performing acts of kindness toward other people, or putting up with difficult situations. If this is all we believe about the cross, we risk transforming our faith into a religion that celebrates many good things - but which avoids the difficult truths about life and about faithfulness to God. When Jesus tells Peter that he is going to die, Peter will not hear it. "That can't happen to you, Lord! Not to YOU!" And Jesus is more stern with Peter in this moment than he is at any other time. Even when Peter returns to the resurrected Christ after having betrayed him three times, Jesus does not chastise him then as he does now. "Get behind me, Satan! Jesus says. "You are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things." Peter sees Jesus as a person who must be about his own survival. The most important thing is for Jesus to stay alive. There is nothing more important than preserving his life. What Peter does not understand is that fear and the works of darkness all stem from this crucial understanding that we must preserve ourselves at all costs. Evil tempts us to believe that there is nothing more than this life and that we must do all that we can to preserve our existence. It is the darkness that first and foremost wants us consumed with our own survival. The forces of darkness want us consumed with me, myself, and I and holding tightly to the lie that survival is the most important aspect of life on this earth. This fear is based on the assumption that there is nothing after death and so death must be avoided at all costs. Just keep things the same and everything will be ok. Don't give your life away. This belief that we must "survive" leads us to live our lives with ourselves at the center. If preserving your life is the most important thing, then one can easily become consumed with what the body or mind need to keep on going. This quickly can morph into self-centeredness. Pleasing the self becomes of the utmost importance. What I like, what I love, what I want to buy or consume or experience becomes essential. Thus begins the never-ending journey of chasing a shadow. Worshipping the self, trying to preserve the self, these efforts are somewhat like a cat that chases its tail. The self has no power at all and the death rate is still 100%. I heard an interview last week with the actress Jane Seymour. At the end she said, “All that really matters is the love we give away and the difference we make.” Jesus never promised his people perpetual good health, freedom from all aches and pains, or bypassing of death. Jesus got little of the "good life," nor did he promise us that we, by following him, would do so. Rather, he assured us that he would never allow anything worse to happen to us than happened to him. He promised that the world would also nail us to some "cross," if we followed him. As Martin Luther King said it, paraphrasing Jesus, "the cross we bear always precedes the crown we wear." In our Jesus-induced times of pain, he gives even us innate cowards the courage to take up our cross and follow. Jesus’ words call us to recognize and release whatever hinders us from full relationships with God and one another. Self-denial challenges us to know the stumbling blocks within our own selves. It beckons us to open ourselves to the one who is the source and creator of our deepest self. And self-denial compels us to ask ourselves, “What are the actions, what is the way of being, that will leave the greatest amount of room for God’s love, grace, and compassion to move in and through me?” Jesus is clear. To be his disciples, to enter the Kingdom of God, we must deny our selves and pick up our crosses - and follow him. So what is the cross we are called to bear? Our crosses are our own - they are shaped specially for us by our own life issues and by the call of God upon our lives. Our cross is like Christ's in the sense that it involves offering ourselves to God and our neighbors in complete and total love and obedience to God, no matter where that love and obedience may take us. It may involve us in less than physically dying for Christ. It will involve us in far more than simply performing acts of kindness toward other people, or putting up with difficult situations. Our motives for doing things will not be - how will this help me - but instead how will it serve Christ? How will it serve God? I am struck by verse 35 in today's gospel reading. Those words that say: "Those who save their life will lose it, those who lose their life for Christ's sake, and for the sake of good news, will save it." People do risk their lives for others. Another Martin Luther King, Jr. quote: “A man who does not have something for which he is willing to die is not fit to live.” Most of us, for example, would risk our lives to save our children. God is no different. Rebecca had a baby girl just as the Nazis invaded Poland. As the soldiers marched into Warsaw, she clutched her baby girl to her chest in desperation. Rebecca was Jewish. Her husband was a professor. They were too smart for their own good and they were reading the signs. She and her family knew that the Nazis hated them. As tensions arose, Rebecca and her husband began to make plans for her baby girl. Her best friend from grammar school was a Christian. She had recently married and they had not yet had children. Rebecca went by night out of the Jewish ghetto with her baby to visit her friend and to ask her the most important question of her life. "Will you take my baby girl? Will you raise her as your own? I am afraid for my life and the life of my people. I am afraid that she will be taken from me. Will you be her mother? The conversation lasted long into the night. Her friend did not believe that this was necessary. It was not that she did not want the baby, she did, but she was afraid that Rebecca would later regret her decision. Rebecca was adamant and she finally convinced her friend. And so, it came to be that a woman handed over her child so that the child might live. Rebecca's baby girl survived the Holocaust disguised as a Christian. Jesus offers us a model for life. “Don't worship yourself,” he says, “don't spend all your time trying to fix yourself or please yourself or just stay alive but instead, give your life away. Hand it over to God. Lose yourself and you will find yourself. Take up your cross and in following Christ you will find out who you truly are.” This is really hard to do, to lose yourself, to give your life to God. It is just as hard for us as it was for Rebecca to hand her baby off to another. It goes against all our instincts. But Rebecca did it because she knew that she was - her life was - doomed. It ended in nothing. She knew that the only hope for her daughter was to give her away. There will come a time when you have tried enough to please yourself. You will realize that there is nothing more that you can buy, nothing more that you can eat and no place that you can travel that will truly fill your soul. These things can be fun but they don't last. Only love lasts and love only happens when we are able to put someone else ahead of ourselves. So, when you come to that moment when you are ready to hand the baby over, to hand your life over to God, take it in slow steps. Give God some of your time. Give God some of your money. Give God some of your deepest most intimate thoughts and let God fill in the empty spaces. Those who save their lives will lose them, Jesus said, and those who lose their lives will save them. God is love and God will not enter a soul that is full of itself. A teacup full of tea can take no more. If you are full of yourself, God will wait until you can empty yourself and make room. God will wait a long time. Let us pray: We pray, O Lord, that you would make us bold in our faith. By our self- forgetting, our self-denial, help us make visible to all our brothers and sisters the reality of your power and care - that power and care that is so often made evident when we confess our weakness - and so often concealed from others when we are strong. By Rev. Linda Dolby
Acts 2:42-47 Dr. J. Edward Moyers was the professor of Music Ministries and Director of the Seminary Singers while I attended Wesley Theological Seminary. His least favorite hymn in the entire world was "In the Garden." "Too individualistic! Too pietistic!" he would thunder. Finally came the final concert before he retired. At the last rehearsal before the last concert, Dr. Moyers prepared to lead the Singers in the anthem, the one to be the grand finale of his career. He nodded to his long-sufferring wife, who had been his accompanist for 40 years, to begin. She played...ln the Garden....the Seminary Singers sang...ln the Garden....and finally, the befuddled Dr. Moyers directed...ln the Garden. When all 3 verses were finished, Dr. Moyers looked at his mischevious choir and said, "I just don't understand. She's been following these hands for 40 years and now look at what has happened! She's gone individualistic and pietitstic on me!" I come to the garden alone...yes, it is individualistic and pietistic, but that's ok by me, from time to time. Sometimes on a beautiful Spring morning when all the trees are budding, the birds begin to sing, the flowers start their blooming and "In the Garden" is appropriate...a hymn that describes something like falling in love - ...and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me Iam his own; and the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known....it's almost like falling in love, this relationship we share, my Maker and I. You know, a day like today make it almost bearable to live in Lafayette through the dreary winters. I once heard Dianne Roehm say that in the midst of winter she almost always forgets how marvelous is Spring. In the midst of winter, she forgets the beauty of her garden, the wonder of the smell of freshly mown grass, the delight of awaking to singing of the birds. How many of us loiter in winter when it is already spring? I remember a phone call from my daughter when she was in college. She was all anxious and uptight about the pressures of finishing the semester, what courses she would take next semester, what was she going to do this summer? And what will happen when she graduates next year? As she was spazzing out, I said, "wait Emily." It's Spring. You are in New York City. You are falling in like. Take a deep breath and just enjoy. All those questions will be answered. But for now, breathe and enjoy." Breathe and enjoy. Our lesson from Acts paints a picture of the Christian community behaving as if it were the beginning of a love affair. In terms of the human they expressed the highest forms of togetherness and generosity, and in terms of the divine they experienced wondrous signs. Hear these words again: "All who believed were together and had all things in common...they spent much time together. ..they ate with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people." Wow, what a wonderful place! Gee, I wish I had a community like that! Don't you? Well, my friends, this a description of the first church, do you think they might have a thing or two to teach us? Do you think we might make it our goal to be this way, praising God, having goodwill and glad and generous hearts? What would happen if we did? Well, scripture says that day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved. Light attracts light. Love attracts love. Do you think it might be possible for a first time visitor to our church might say, "There was just something special about that place...it's like the people loved each other...and they loved me, even though they didn't know me." Do you remember the theme song from the television show Cheers? Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn't you like to get away? Sometimes you want to go, where everybody knows your name, and they're always glad you came. You wanna be where you can see, our troubles are all the same You wanna be where everybody knows your name. You wanna go where people know, people are all the same, You wanna go where everybody knows your name. You want to go where people know, people are all the same; You want to go where everybody knows your name. Of course this song is talking about going to a bar. What if it were talking about going to church? ..,.... a place to take a break from your worries, where everyone knows your name and they're always glad you came...You want to go where everybody knows your name. Sounds like a great church to me. What would it be like to be part of such a church? Well, it would be a lot like the early church as described in the New Testament. A place where everyone's basic needs were always met. A community where everyone had friends. A community where the royal law of love ruled. Do you remember Jack Benny? Two trademarks of his public persona were his uncanny ability to pinch pennies and the vault in his basement where he kept his money. Though he was quite gracious in his private life, Benny's public stinginess was so well known that Ford Motor Company used it in their advertising - "Pinch a Penny like Benny And a typical television sketch went something like this: A robber would approach Benny, point a gun at him, and say, "Your money or your life." There would be a long pause as Benny hesitated. Again the robber would say, "Your money or your life." Benny paused again and then, with exquisite timing, replied, "I'm thinking, "I'm thinking." Inevitably there'd be loud laughter from the studio audience . . . Our text teaches us that the ideal Christian community is characterized by unity of heart and soul, with unselfish sharing with glad and generous hearts. Whereas today our American culture emulates Benny, encouraging avarice, envying accumulation, and celebrating greed, Luke tells us that the early Christians divested themselves of their wealth for the sake of generous compassion toward the needy. And they did so gladly. Breathe. Enjoy. You are named and you are good. God knows your name. This day is made for you. Jesus came that you might have life, and have it abundantly. You are part of a loving community, made up of saints and sinners who have glad and generous hearts. In a few moments we will be receiving communion. All are welcome. All will be fed. And we will leave this place with glad and generous hearts. May it be so. Amen. |
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