A House of Prayer

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 10/30/16

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^NRS  Mark 11:15 Then they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling and those who were buying in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves; ¹⁶ and he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. ¹⁷ He was teaching and saying, "Is it not written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'? 

In 1960 I was four years old, growing up in the Methodist Church where I had been baptized as an infant. I don’t really remember those years all that well, but I remember some things about them, the fact that I had a little dog, that we lived in a neighborhood and I had friends and my youngest brother came into the world that year in January. For those that remember those days, they were the beginning of the end of the heydays of the church. In 1960 there were 275,000 people living in Fairfax County, 145 people were members of this church up from the 20 just five years before when Rev. Amidon was sent to close the church within the year. Those are the historical facts from 1960. Now here we are 56 years later and it is as if that time never existed in the life of the church. Interestingly enough, the county has shown considerable growth to 1.3 million in the 2013 census while the church had grown to over 1000 members by 1990 with an average worship attendance over 400. Today we have declined to around 561 members with an average worship attendance of 213. In that same period the larger Methodist church has lost 3 million members while the world has grown significantly.

I’m tired. How about you? Are you tired? We have been on a roll in this church for some time now, battling spiritual issues while the world around us deals with economic crisis and war. It’s enough to make a saint weary. We have been formulating vison, leading studies, focusing on what is happening and even have thrown in a mission activity here and there where we have reached out to the community. I heard the other day that if we are so busy for God that we feel worn out, maybe somewhere along the line we left out God. Let me say that again. If we are so busy in our work for God that we are tired out, maybe we have left out God. Boy, when I heard that I had to say AMEN. Sure sounded like how I am feeling, tired, worn out, exhausted and struggling to figure out what God wants us to do next.

It has been said that in the history of the world, the people strayed from God more often than they followed His will and His plan. Why is that? Because we like to be in charge! And we often think that we know more about what God needs us to do than God does. So we make plans, go off in some direction without consulting God, and find ourselves worn out, out of resources, and not accomplishing what we had hoped. In fact I can assure you that if we decide to do it our way, we will never accomplish what God could have done through us. So I am here this morning to tell you that where I am is realizing that I need to be revived. How about you? Here is what I know. All things are possible with God. There is nothing that God cannot accomplish if you and I are willing to be utilized as His instruments in the world. Matthew 7:7 tells us that ask and we shall receive, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who knocks, the door is opened.

Let me share some stories with you. Remember the story I told you last week about the church with no children? Well they came, twelve of them in three families. We prepared a Sunday school room for the children and purchased some children’s Bible’s for them when they came. All of them were baptized in that church and the older ones came to God as they professed their faith before God and the church. All because of prayer! When we pray to God for resources and direction, God answers us in incredible ways.

There is prayer story about four-year-old Melinda. Her favorite story was “The Three Little Pigs” which she asked her mom or dad to read every single night before bed. They gladly obliged, but after several months, her father got a bright idea. He recorded the story on tape and told her to simply press “play” before jumping under the covers.  She resisted. “But, honey,” he told her, “you can still hear it.” “Yes,” she replied, “but I can’t sit in its lap.” The Apostle John tells us in his Gospel, chapter 15 that if we allow God to abide in us and God’s words to abide in us, then whatever we ask for will be done. The first question is what it means for God to abide in us. Bishop Cho, our now former Bishop in the Virginia Annual Conference challenged us to a spiritual revival. There have been revivals in the church before with great success. And I have shared a personal story of witness that prayer works for the church. Bishop Cho’s challenge is for us to spend an hour each day with God. Whether we use a devotional, use that time for Bible study or just pray, to spend an hour each day with God. Now I can hear you already cranking up. But Pastor, do you really know what you are asking. I don’t have an hour in my day to give up. Wish I did. In fact I talked with someone just the other day and was told we would love to be at church Pastor but my new jobs a hassle and the kids have the flu but its sure nice talking to you. Actually that line comes from the song Cats in the Cradle by Harry Chapin. But it sums up our lives pretty well.

But truthfully, what is your life worth? What if that hour might be the difference between salvation and hell? Maybe not for you, but what about the person who does know God and your lack of giving God that hour assures that that person will never know God? How does that make you feel? Or I could just try and guilt you into it, asking you questions like, you tell me that you love God and yet you never spend any time with God. That’s the personal side of all this. What is your life worth? Is it less than an hour a day? Give God the hour and then watch what God gives back to you.

But what about the church? Maybe the reason we are so tired and worn out is that we need God to give us resources and strength. It wouldn’t hurt that God would provide a little direction as well. We know sort of what we need at Sydenstricker to be a good fruitful church. We need a church full of people willing to share a little of that Sydenstricker spirit with others. We need a church willing to take the time to reach out to those in need in our community. We need a church willing to change the nature of worship so that our focus in on glorifying God rather than a place to make each of us feel a little better about ourselves. When we have a deep loving relationship with God we will feel so much better about ourselves than we ever did. Maybe it means giving an hour a day to God. The church in my story gave that a little more and look at the results that they saw. If they can do it, so can we. Each week we print the prayer concerns in our community. What if you prayed for them by name each morning? I would like to extend that challenge this morning. Our relationship with God starts with our desire to communicate with God. We do that through prayer. Is eternity worth an hour a day?

So the real question today is this, what do you want Sydenstricker to be about? Do you want Sydenstricker to be a nice place to come once a week, encounter God and then go about your business? Or would you desire that Sydenstricker is the place where God lives through the ministries and outreach? Fifty plus years ago Sydenstricker was the center of this community. Through prayer and thanksgiving, a willingness to do the will of God, we can be again.

I would like to challenge us to become a prayer covenant church in the Virginia Annual Conference. That would mean for us that we start and maintain a prayer service sometime during the week where folks can come to pray. It would mean we spend time during the year learning or re-learning about prayer. But it would mean that we have made a concentrated effort to be in prayer.

In a speech made in 1863, Abraham Lincoln said, "We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us."

Is God the central focus of your life today? If not, why not change that right now. 

The Lord's Prayer

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 10/23/16

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^NRS  Luke 11:1 He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples." ² He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. ³ Give us each day our daily bread. ⁴ And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."

An atheist was walking through the woods.
"What majestic trees"!
"What powerful rivers"!
"What beautiful animals"!
He said to himself. As he was walking alongside the river, he heard a rustling in the bushes behind him. He turned to look. He saw a 7-foot grizzly charge towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. He looked over his shoulder & saw that the bear was closing in on him. He looked over his shoulder again, & the bear was even closer. He tripped & fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw that the bear was right On top of him, reaching for him with his left paw & raising his right paw to strike him. At that instant the Atheist cried out, "Oh my God!"
Time Stopped.
The bear froze.
The forest was still.
As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice came out of the sky. "You deny my existence for all these years, teach others I don't exist and even credit creation to cosmic accident." "Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer"? The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask You to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps You could make the BEAR a Christian"? "Very Well," said the Voice.
The light went out. The sounds of the forest resumed. And the bear dropped his right paw, brought both paws together, bowed his head & spoke:
"Lord bless this food, which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord, Amen."

Today we are going to talk about prayer. What does it mean to pray and what should we expect out of prayer. Years ago I remember being asked to bring a prayer ministry to the church where I was a member. This is before my call to ministry began to kick in in a way that I acknowledged it. The idea of the prayer ministry was that we spent time in a two prong approach at praying over those who were worshipping. One group was the shut-in folks who constantly want to reconnect with the church. They would pray during one of the worship services for the preacher, for the singers and for those who were participating in worship. The other group was a small group of people who prayed during the service in a small chapel which was located directly, and I mean directly, behind the chancel area of the sanctuary. In this church it would be the equivalent of being somehow connected with the stairway that runs behind the wall with the cross on it. These folks would pray for the people participating in worship and those on the prayer list for that week. Prayer in that perspective was asking God to bless those in worship and praise to God. I remember feeling a great sense of peace and comfort as I prayed during my time in the small chapel there.

The Disciples asked Jesus how to pray. The Lord’s Prayer was His answer. So how do we pray? Now there are several places to read the Lord’s Prayer in the Bible. One of them is the one you heard a few moments ago, the other is in Matthew. I like the Luke story because it is sandwiched in between the story of Mary and Martha and the neighbor who asks for bread. Mary and Martha is a story to remind us that the most important things are often the least attended to. Martha was worried about making sure her house was clean and food was on the table while Mary was listening to Jesus. And the second story is a reminder that when our neighbor asks us for bread we give it to them because, well, that is what we do.

The Lord’s Prayer is in response to the Disciples asking Jesus how to pray. Now without a doubt, they have watched Him pray countless times, perform miracles and tell great stories. So they want what He has. This power that seems to permeate all His being and He lifts it up to other people through healing and teaching. But at the center of it is prayer and Jesus takes time to do that all the time. I have challenged each of you to an hour of prayer a day. Break it up into smaller increments if you need to but prayer to God for an hour every day. Some of that prayer should be vocal, some silent, some speaking, some listening, but pray. And Jesus taught us how to pray just as the children’s moments have been teaching us. We begin by calling to God where God is, Our Father who art in heaven. We then praise God with hallowed it be thy name, they kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven. In other words, we are asking God whose very name is sacred and special to hear our prayers so that this world we live in can be the same as heaven where God resides. And we pray that God’s will be done in all things. We are asking that God’s will be central and lead us to where God wants us to be. Prayer is about God. It is about communicating with God with our desires, our dreams, our appreciation, our concern for others and sometimes just because. But I must warn you that prayer is always about God first.

Then Jesus tells us to ask for bread. That is why the story following this is so important. If we ask for bread, God will give us bread. Do you believe that? And then we ask for forgiveness. Why? Because Paul reminds us that we all fall short of the glory of God! The beauty of being a Christian is not that we are perfect, far from it. No the beauty is that no matter how imperfect we are, we are forgiven. And then we ask to be forgiven as we forgive. Be careful here. If you are not a forgiving person how can you expect God to forgive you? Ever thought about that? 

Every time we pray we have to enter into prayer with expectation that the prayer will be answered and that God will provide instruction. When you pray do you believe? When you pray do you pray praising God and pray for unselfish things? God’s power flows in places where God is present. Why should we expect that God will answer our prayers in places where no-one believes God exists? If we don’t believe that God is real then we have no expectation that God can answer our requests.

God’s power flows where there is expectation. I want to ask this question today. Did you come here today expecting to be in the presence of God? Did you arrive here expecting to see miracles and amazing things happen and see healing beyond your understanding? Because if you did not, then why would you then expect anything different than what you expected? What I am saying can transform this church. I believe that in order for us to become a great church, we have to become a deeply moving prayerful church. Until we are willing to become that kind of church, what we will be, what people will see, is a mediocre, good church full of good people reaching out to the world around them in good ways. But if we want to become a church of 400 or even 500  people who are making a difference in the world around us we need to do three things and we need to begin them today. We need to begin a disciplined life of prayer. A life where we pray when we get up in the morning, we pray throughout the day and then we are praying at the end of our day. We need to be in prayer for others. We need to be in prayer praising God for what God has given to us and praying that God will us in amazing ways. We need to be praying that God will prepare us for miracles and to encounter those in need. Through a disciplined prayer life we will begin to feel the mighty presence of God.

A do-it-yourselfer went into a hardware store early one morning and asked to see new saws to replace his old saw. The salesman took a chain saw from the shelf and commented that it was their “newest model, with the latest in technology, guaranteed to cut ten cords of firewood a day.” The customer thought that sounded pretty good, so he bought it on the spot. The next day the customer returned, looking somewhat exhausted. “Something must be wrong with this saw,” he moaned. “I worked as hard as I could and only managed to cut three cords of wood. I used to do four with my old-fashioned saw.” Looking confused, the salesman said, “Here, let me try it out back on some wood we keep there.” They went to the woodpile; the salesman pulled the cord, and as the motor went vvvrooommmm. The customer leaped back and exclaimed, “What’s that noise??” The do it yourselfer had entered into the purchase not expecting anything more than the same old way of cutting that he knew. I wonder how many of us enter into prayer the same way.

We can be a great church in our neck of the woods. Right now we are a good church, maybe even a mediocre church in our community. Now before you get upset with me, my observation is based on how much God is blessing us with an expectation that God can bless us beyond our understanding. There was a church located next to a major highway that decided they needed a revival. So they began to pray for God’s presence to be felt within the church and that God would bless them by using them to bless the world around them. One day in the midst of that revival tears began to flow from many of the parishioners, the pulpit split with a loud crack and truck drivers stopped along the road, entering the church and remarking that they felt a deep need to stop and come inside. I remember many years ago participating in a prayer service for a young lady that needed to have some surgery done the following week. We prayed over her with a conviction that God was going to bring healing. We later found out that when she went into pre-op the doctors discovered that her muscle tear had miraculously healed itself. Hmmm!

We need to begin to believe that God can do anything. We need to enter into prayer with expectation that God is going to do what needs to be done. Now I want to insert some caution here. We begin this process by entering into a place where God is present. God present in humbleness, in grace, in love and in compassion. God is not likely to care that we want to be rich, that we want perfect health or that we want things that we do not need. So if we enter into prayer with expectations that God is going to provide unreasonable expectations we may well be disappointed. But hear my words this morning. God is greater than anything we can imagine. God can heal anything and anyone. God can provide anything at any time. I remember being a chaplain and being called to work with a family in ICU. Their mother was in a coma and not expected to live. My job was to work with the family in those final moments. I remember praying with them for their mother and hearing a gasp. I opened my eyes and looked down into her eyes that were now open and alert. She told me later that she heard me praying and wanted to see who was praying for her. My expectation in that moment was that God would heal her in God’s will and in God’s way. God provided beyond my expectation because I believe that in our praise for God, God found compassion and mercy for us. She left the hospital and went home.

Finally, we need to acknowledge God. God is present with us here in this place. God wants us to allow God to use us as the instruments of God’s mercy and grace. When we are willing to be God’s instrument great things can happen. What do we want to be as a church? Do we want to be a great church and change the world around us? Do we want to be the place where the glory of God is present? Work with me by beginning a life of prayer. Are you ready to pray? 

Random Thoughts

I wonder what questions you have? Often we think that Christian blogs, especially the ones with Pastors are supposed to deal with Theological Issues and Bible based questions. But how do we allow society to dictate what we can ask? Aren't all questions of life biblical and theological questions? So what would you like to know? What do you have a need to feel we need to discuss? Here is that opening you have been waiting for? I will moderate so that we can have constructive dialog, something we sorely need right now. Enjoy the blog - respond to any of the sermons or visit one of the Bible studies. I will be doing the I'm a Christian study so each week that will get updated. Take care and God bless!

Day of Atonement

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC

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^NRS  Leviticus 16:1 The LORD spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the LORD and died. ² The LORD said to Moses: Tell your brother Aaron not to come just at any time into the sanctuary inside the curtain before the mercy seat that is upon the ark, or he will die; for I appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat……²⁰ When he has finished atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. ²¹ Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and sending it away into the wilderness by means of someone designated for the task. ²² The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region; and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.

One day each year, the sons of Aaron would bring two goats into the Temple. One of these goats would be killed and the blood sprinkled on the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. A blood offering was given to God for the disobedience of creation. In order to bring atonement for the disobedience of the people, something had to die and the blood was sprinkled in the Temple. Another innocent goat was brought in the Temple and the high Priest would lay his hands on it, symbolizing that the sins of the people were now placed on this sacrificial goat and it is sent out into the wilderness where it most likely would not survive. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could take all our screw ups, our missteps, our failure to live up to how God wants us to live and transfer them to someone or something else. Don’t we do that whenever we find someone or something else to blame for our mistakes? We do it all the time don’t we? By the way, the goat that gets to go to the wilderness carrying the sins of the people is called a scapegoat. That is where that term comes from.

What God has done is to provide a means that the people could see, to take away forever their mistakes and disobedience. I can imagine the people surrounding the road out of town as the poor little goat was led into the wilderness, there to be tormented by the wild creatures and evil things that exist there. What the people could not see was the other goat as it was killed and the blood of that goat sprinkled as an offering to God for the iniquities of people. God required sacrifice for atonement. That day by the way, the Day of Atonement is called Yom Kippur and is still celebrated each year as a day of repentance. It follows a ten day period of fasting and repentance that also celebrates the creation of the world. So we celebrate the thing that God did and we finish that celebration with the things that we did. Sounds a bit like a circle of life deal doesn’t it? 

So what does it mean for us? Well let’s regress a bit and look at the New Testament story. Jesus comes into the world fully human, open to all of our emotions and desires, suffering all the fragilities of humanity because like us, He is human. He suffers grief at the tomb of Lazarus, ridicule from his relatives and mistrust from those who knew him young, what good can come out of Nazareth. At his Baptism He is identified as God’s favored and we understand that in that baptism He is anointed for something special. And yet, the first thing that is required of Him is to be sent into the wilderness. There He faces the forces of evil and temptation where His very life is threatened. It does seem kind of in reverse, but yet it tells us that He is worthy of carrying the sins of the world. He alone is capable of being the scapegoat for all of creation because of His victory in that wilderness.

But it doesn’t end there. God demands a sacrifice for the sins of the world. God demands blood for atonement of our iniquities. God demands that the blood of that sacrifice be sprinkled on the mercy seat of God. Hmmm, sounds like an Easter story in the making to me. How about you? But let us for a moment, do as the author of Romans does, and remember the story of Easter. Sin came in the world from Adam, whose disobedience banned us from paradise during this physical life that we live. But God wanted us to share in paradise, to reside in the place that God resides, to share in the love of relationship with God. So how does God overcome our own iniquities, our own inherent, that’s a big word for something that is a part of us from birth, our own inherent desire to sin and disobedient? How does God atone for the flaw in creation that began when humans took the gift of choice and subverted it to the will of evil? God can only atone for that by becoming the sacrifice that is called for in atonement. God sent us God, in the form of His Son Jesus, to become the scapegoat for the sins of the world, to be sent into the wilderness so that He could resist temptation and the forces of evil. And then for Him to go to the cross and have His blood shed for us. As He is taken off the cross, the veil in the Holy of Holies is torn in two and now no longer do we need a Priest to stand between us and God just as it was in the very beginning. What God does with Jesus is to bring creation back to the place it was intended to be, not to bring Eden back yet, we have atonement to make as well, but to give us the opportunity to share in that paradise by making the choice to believe in God, to imitate His Son in the world around us and to become Adam and Eve that was designed to be in the world. One man sinned and condemned the world; one man sacrificed and saved the world.    

The scapegoat is a picture of Christ. Our sins are carried away by Jesus, our Scapegoat and sin Substitute. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:13). The blood of Christ seals and ratifies the New Covenant. In the book of Hebrews we’re told how Jesus entered the Heavenly sanctuary before the presence of God-the-Father, to intervene for us. He secured a lasting deliverance, forever satisfying divine justice, fully removing our guilt, once-and-for-all. Yom Kippur is an annual event because humans need to continually sacrifice for atonement, but our Lord’s one-time, enduring sacrifice upon the Cross fully frees us from the penalty of our sins. We replay this wonderful story every time we have communion. One part body in the bread, a body given for us and the other part in the juice representing the blood shed for us. Jesus becomes humanities scapegoat carrying the sins with Him as he takes the blame away.

I heard a story written by Brian Moore, 17 for the Christian Athletes meeting he would attend that day. Sadly he died later in an automobile accident. It is titled, THE ROOM.

In that place between wakefulness and dreams, I found myself in the room. There were no distinguishing features except for the one wall covered with small index card files. They were like the ones in libraries that list titles by author or subject in alphabetical order. But these files, which stretched from floor to ceiling and seemingly endlessly in either direction, had very different headings.

As I drew near the wall of files, the first to catch my attention was one that read "Girls I have liked." I opened It and began flipping through the cards. I quickly shut it, shocked to realize that I recognized the names written on each one.

And then without being told, I knew exactly where I was. This lifeless room with its small files was a crude catalog system for my life. Here were written the actions of my every moment, big and small, in a detail my memory couldn't match.

A sense of wonder and curiosity, coupled with horror, stirred within me as I began randomly opening files and exploring their content. Some brought joy and sweet memories; others a sense of shame and regret so intense that I would look over my shoulder to see if anyone was watching.

A file named "Friends" was next to one marked "Friends I have betrayed." The titles ranged from the mundane to the outright weird. "Books I Have Read," "Lies I Have Told," "Comfort I have Given," "Jokes I Have Laughed at." Some were almost hilarious in their exactness: "Things I've yelled at my brothers". Others I couldn't laugh at: "Things I Have Done in My Anger", "Things I Have Muttered Under My Breath at My Parents." I never ceased to be surprised by the contents.

Often there were many more cards than I expected. Sometimes fewer than I hoped. I was overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the life I had lived. Could it be possible that I had the time in my years to write each of these thousands or even millions of cards? But each card confirmed this truth. Each was written in my own handwriting. Each signed with my signature.

When I pulled out the file marked "Songs I have listened to," I realized the files grew to contain their contents. The cards were packed tightly, and yet after two or three yards, I hadn't found the end of the file. I shut it shamed, not so much by the quality of music but more by the vast time I knew that file represented.

When I came to a file marked "Lustful Thoughts," I felt a chill run through my body. I pulled the file out only an inch, not willing to test its size, and drew out a card. I shuddered at its detailed content. I felt sick to think that such a moment had been recorded.

An almost animal rage broke on me. One thought dominated my mind, "No one must ever see these cards! No one must ever see this room! I have to destroy them!"

In insane frenzy I yanked the file out. Its size didn't matter now. I had to empty it and burn the cards. But as I took it at one end and began pounding it on the floor, I could not dislodge a single card. I became desperate and pulled out a card, only to find it as strong as steel when I tried to tear it. Defeated and utterly helpless, I returned the file to its slot. Leaning my forehead against the wall, I let out a long, self-pitying sigh. And then I saw it.

The title bore "People I Have Shared the Gospel With." The handle was brighter than those around it, newer, almost unused. I pulled on it's handle and a small box not more than three inches long fell into my hands. I could count the cards it contained on one hand. And then the tears came. I began to weep. Sobs so deep that they hurt. They started in my stomach and shook through me. I fell on my knees and cried. I cried out of shame, from the overwhelming shame of it all. The rows of file shelves swirled in my tear-filled eyes. No one must ever, ever know of this room. I must lock it up and hide the key. But then as I pushed away the tears, I saw Him.

No, please, not Him. Not here. Oh, anyone but Jesus. I watched helplessly as He began to open the files and read the cards. I couldn't bear to watch His response. And in the moments I could not bring myself to look at His face, I saw a sorrow deeper than my own. He seemed to intuitively go to the worst boxes. Why did He have to read every one? Finally He turned and looked at me from across the room. He looked at me with pity in His eyes. But this was a pity that didn't anger me. I dropped my head, covered my face with my hands and began to cry again. He walked over and put His arm around me. He could have said so many things. But He didn't say a word. He just cried with me. Then He got up and walked back to the wall of files. Starting at one end of the room, He took out a file and, one by one, began to sign His name over mine on each card. "No!" I shouted rushing to Him. No Please! ; All I could find to say was, "No, no," as I pulled the card from Him. His name shouldn't be on these cards. But there it was, written in red so rich, so dark, so alive. The name of Jesus covered mine. It was written with His blood. He gently took the card back. He smiled a sad smile and began to sign the cards.

I don't think I'll ever understand how He did it so quickly, but the next instant it seemed I heard Him close the last file and walk back to my side. He placed His hand on my shoulder and said, "It is finished." I stood up, and He led me out of the room. There was no lock on its door.

There were still cards to be written.

Are you ready for redemption?

Are you ready to be forgiven?

The sacrificial goat of God is waiting to lead you to paradise. Are you ready to follow?

Passover

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC on October 2nd, 2016

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Scripture Reading

^NRS  Exodus 12:1 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt: ² This month shall mark for you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year for you. ³ Tell the whole congregation of Israel that on the tenth of this month they are to take a lamb for each family, a lamb for each household. ⁴ If a household is too small for a whole lamb, it shall join its closest neighbor in obtaining one; the lamb shall be divided in proportion to the number of people who eat of it. ⁵ Your lamb shall be without blemish, a year-old male; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. ⁶ You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month; then the whole assembled congregation of Israel shall slaughter it at twilight. ⁷ They shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. ⁸ They shall eat the lamb that same night; they shall eat it roasted over the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs. ⁹ Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted over the fire, with its head, legs, and inner organs. ¹⁰ You shall let none of it remain until the morning; anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. ¹¹ This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD. ¹² For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike down every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both human beings and animals; on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments: I am the LORD. ¹³ The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live: when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague shall destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

As I began to work on this sermon this week many thoughts and emotions went through my mind. The connection we all have to Passover and the mercy of God that lives within us. The lives we live that require God to intervene on our behalf because we alone are not worthy to overcome the obstacles of our humanness. The need to be ready to go wherever and whenever God says go which should play a central part of our daily lives. The obvious parallels or foretaste of this first Passover to the events of the Passion Week cannot be overlooked or discarded.

So let us look at the events of the first Passover and then propel ourselves forward to the events of the second Passover. The Hebrew calendar has been with us a long time. It is an accurate calendar based on lunar movements, with the first sliver of the moon following the dark or new moon dictating the beginning of the month. With modern science we have an ever increasingly accurate determination of this event. The first month of the Hebrew year is Nissan, determined by this text we have just read. Sometime in antiquity, I like the sound of that word, it reminds me that we are a collection of older, wiser remembrances; the rabbi’s determined the beginning of the calendar based on working backwards in time through the Torah, the first five books of the Bible. Now some of that calculation unfortunately is simply an estimate. The exact dating of the Exodus still is at best a guess by the best of the wise. Nissan follows the Spring Equinox, that moment when we begin to slip towards warmer weather and the growing season. Adjustments are made based on the 29 ½ day lunar month and what we now know as the additional ¼ day each year due to the earth’s rotation. All that to say, Passover happens in the spring of the year.

On the 10^th day of Nissan, the sacrificial lambs, either sheep or goats were set apart from the rest of the flock. Whether these lambs received special provisions or none is a matter of discussion still today. The number of lambs was determined by the number of faithful people who anticipated participating in this event. In others words, we are never clear whether all the Hebrew people followed the instructions of God or not, but suffice it to say that a large number did. On the evening of the 14^th day the lamb was slain, the blood of that lamb placed at the entranceway of the doors of the homes in which Hebrew people lived. Why? Certainly God knew which house had Hebrew people in them, did God not? Maybe we miss the point here. Maybe this was part of the test of the people to see if they were willing to be obedient to God. Next the lambs were placed in the fire, whole lambs with all their parts. Now most would miss this little detail. But it has significance if you stay with me for a while. The lambs were to be eaten and what was not consumed burned. But they were to eat them in their traveling clothes. All of this would have taken place in the dark of the night by the way. The slaying of the lambs at twilight and then cooking them which would take some time would place this probably in the middle of the night. Imagine the sounds that they would have heard as the Angel of Death passed among them during this meal. And that night as they gathered together in their homes, eating this strange meal of God, they received the gift of life. And so begins the true Exodus story. No wonder Passover is still the high celebration of Hebrew, now Jewish, life.

I love to do a sermon about Passover at Easter, a time when we begin to recognize the significance of this Jewish celebration in our own. So let us reflect on a moment in time if we can. That moment is the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem. I would bet that you never made the connection to the fact that Jesus arrives on the day that the Hebrew people are selecting the lambs for Passover sacrifice. Now remember a day to a Hebrew begins at sunup and ends at sundown or if you are on a 24 hours calendar, begins at sundown and ends the following sundown. So if we are watching carefully we see that Jesus arrives on the 10^th day of Nissan into the town of Jerusalem. HMMMMM! We celebrate it on Sunday but it likely occurred on Monday morning of that week. Four days later on the 14^th day of Nissan the Lambs are slain and the Passover meal begins. Now I have read that the Lambs are slain around 3 PM in the afternoon of the 14^th day of Nissan. It is funny then that that also appears to be the exact time of Jesus death on the cross. Coincidence?

Here is where we need to make a connection that God wants us to make. Jesus is the continuation of a long story, a story that began with Adam, continued through Noah and Abraham, Joseph, Moses and David to this moment in time. What occurred in Egypt is the foretaste of life that we receive through the cross at Golgotha. When we take communion which we will do today, we forget that connection all too often. That what God did for the Hebrew people in Egypt God does for the whole world at Golgotha. What God began in Egypt is fulfilled by Jesus on the cross. So why is it significant that they had to eat the whole lamb? Accepting Jesus is not a part time or partial thing. We accept Jesus completely or not at all. There is no fence sitting allowed. God loves us so much that God sent us Jesus as the sacrificial lamb, His blood flowing down the cross to set us free from death. God’s love given to us in a service that allows us both to remember and then participate in the eating of and blood of the lamb.

Passover was not an end, but a beginning.  It meant that the Israelites were beginning a journey to the Promised Land.  It was in many ways the beginning of the nation of Israel.  It was for most of them the beginning of their relationship with God.  So it is with us.  The Lord’s Supper is not the end, but the beginning.  We acknowledge our sojourn in this world.  By it we are made one people, the people of God around the world.  By the sacrifice it represents we have fellowship with God. Passover was to be eaten in haste, dressed for a journey.  The Hebrew was to be ready to go out and follow the Lord wherever God might lead them, even though they were under a roof celebrating a feast.  They were to have their garments belted for a journey, their sandals on their feet.  Passover was to prepare them spiritually for the trip that would take them from their homes, into the wilderness and then into the land of promise.  So it is with us. 

When William Gladstone was Prime Minister of Great Britain, he was approached one day by the son of a close friend. The young man sought counsel regarding his career plan. First he explained to Gladstone, I plan to complete my studies at Oxford. Splendid replied the prime minister, and then what next. Well, Sir, I plan to study law and become a prominent attorney. Excellent replied the prime minister, then what next. I plan to seek election to the parliament. Wonderful, replied Gladstone, then what next? I plan on doing well in the parliament and being elected to influential cabinet positions. A noble desire, and then what next. Well, sir, in time I would strive to attain the position of prime minister. Well said, but then what next. When I retire I plan on teaching until I die. Gladstone said to him, worthy paths you have decided but what next? The young man confused said why I just die, there is no next. Young man said Gladstone, you are a fool. Go home and think your life through from its end. Gladstone understands what we need so strongly to understand. Death comes to all of us in time. How are you preparing your life for the journey after this physical life?  

The Lord’s Supper should be taken as if preparation for spiritual combat -- for such it is.  We are not here to relax in angelic arms, but to tighten our belts, put on our combat boots and prepare for battle. God will be faithful and we who believe will take on immortality and spend eternity with God. But it requires sacrifice and choice. It requires obedience and struggle. Take, eat, this is my body! Take drink all of this for this is the new covenant between God and God’s people. We are on a journey that God is leading. Are you dressed to travel?

Random Thoughts

The last two Saturday/ Sunday worship services have been over the top in inspiration for me.  The visuals in the church were incredible giving folks a geat perspective of what the message was about. Check out the pictures at the Sydenstricker facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/SydenstrickerUMC/.
God has been good to me throughout the years but it is within the last three months that I can truly say I have felt God's presence in the same way I felt it when this ministry journey started so long ago. I don't know where we are going but we are on the journey of Discipleship. For those of you that follow my blog, let me know your questions and your journey experiences.