Where do we go from here?

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 3/3/19

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^NRS Ezekiel 37:1 The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. ² He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. ³ He said to me, "Mortal, can these bones live?" I answered, "O Lord GOD, you know." ⁴ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. ⁵ Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. ⁶ I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the LORD." ⁷ So I prophesied as I had been commanded; and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. ⁹ Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." ¹⁰ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood on their feet, a vast multitude. ¹¹ Then he said to me, "Mortal, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say, 'Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.' ¹² Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people. ¹⁴ I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act, says the LORD."

I love this scripture. Let me set the stage for you. The people of Israel had not loved God with their whole heart, had not loved their neighbor as God had instructed and for that, they were conquered and scatter to the four winds. Ezekiel has prayed for hope for the people of Israel and God answers that prayer with this vision. Some believe that he was in the Megiddo valley, the sight of numerous battles for control of trade routes and country wealth. There God shows Ezekiel that God is in control and that no matter what, God can reclaim and redeem. Can you imagine this vision? It has been recreated in a dozen horror and/ or science fiction movies as the bones take on flesh and live again. What Ezekiel saw, we will live into if we are both faithful and perseverant?

I want to share with you that I received this week a thank you card from our District Superintendent. He was thanking us for our fruitfulness and our tenacity to keep on going no matter what. He was acknowledging that we now have had three years of sustained growth in average worship attendance and two years in a row where we have increased the number of professions of faith/ reaffirmations of faith. Jeff was also acknowledging the growth in children, youth and young adult ministries in the numbers of growth that we have experienced. In the last year, we have been renovating the church with new air conditioning units, new heating/ AC in the Agape house, new carpet in the chapel, new paint in numerous places and new carpet soon to be installed in the Agape House along with some renovation work in the kitchen there. We have groups focused on defining and implementing discipleship programs in the church, more adult education and small groups than ever before and we are focusing our attention on how to connect with neighbor. All in all, we have been sharing the good news of the Gospel, the love of Jesus Christ with the world around us. I haven’t even touched the surface of the activities and mission we are involved with in our local community, El Salvador and around the world. My friends, as your Pastor, I am excited to share that we are church.

We have much work yet to be done. Many of you have listened to news reports, followed Facebook accounts or spent time following the General Conference. I want to share with you what they outcome of General Conference is as I know it. First, I want to remind us that we are called to love God with all our hearts, all our minds and all souls and then love our neighbors in the same way. Some of you today are happy about the outcome of General Conference. Some of you are deeply hurt and saddened. To both of you I ask that you respect each other with kindness, patience and love. That is what we are called to do. General Conference passed the Modified Traditional Plan. That plan keeps the language concerning LGBTQ as if currently is in the Book of Discipline and adds teeth to the accountability of clergy, Bishops and Conferences to uphold the Discipline. In some ways, nothing changed in who we are and how we operate. It did not address membership, which means that everyone, regardless, is open to membership in the United Methodist Church. We as Pastors cannot marry same-sex individuals and openly LGBTQ persons cannot be licensed, commissioned or ordained as it is currently written in our Book of Discipline. So in simple terms, nothing changed in the way we are allowed to pastor our churches or appoint pastors to churches. What did change is that pastors, bishops, churches and annual conferences that violate those rules now face stricter consequences.

General Conference also passed a less restrictive “I want to leave” clause. John Wesley in his infinite wisdom was concerned that we would become more enamored with our buildings than our mission. Therefore, he instituted a trust clause that says that property, buildings and financial assets of the church belong to the Annual Conference, not to the local church. If a local church no longer desires or is able to be church, then the property reverts to the Annual Conference. That trust clause has been upheld in numerous court battles of churches that wanted to leave the denomination. General Conference passed a less restrictive rule for leaving than is currently in place. Before you ask, I am not sure what the exact language is so we have a little sit and wait in front of us.

All of this is subject to a Judicial Council ruling that decides whether the actions taken by General Conference are constitutional in accordance with our rules and regulations in the Book of Discipline. That will occur April 23-26^th in Evanston, Illinois when the Judicial Council meets. They had previously said that parts of the Traditional Plan, this thing that was passed by General Conference, was unconstitutional. If they find parts of it to be unconstitutional, then the original, language of the Book of Discipline will stay in place. Therefore, we wait and see a bit.

So what does this all mean, really? It means that our denomination is continually going through the pruning and growing process. It means that as a church we are going to be inviting to some and not to all. That part saddens me and should you, regardless of where you fall in this issue. We will likely see some of our denomination split and go in a different direction. We may even have to make a choice one day, which denomination we will live in, much like our Episcopal, Presbyterian, Baptist and Lutheran brothers and sisters have already done. If and when those decisions need to be made, we will be transparent as we discuss and then discern God’s will for us. For the moment, nothing we have been doing and are currently planning on doing will change.

We are called to love God and love neighbor. Everyone is our neighbor, even those who we struggle to agree with, connect with or like. We are called not to be the church of exclusion but rather the church of inclusion and this decision, though it may be seen by some as exclusionary, is not. At Sydenstricker, our prayer is that we continue to connect with people of all ages, races, genders, and persuasions. Our goal is to follow the Gospel that tells us to love God with faith and trust in God. What we have seen in the past few years, is when we do, we grow. We grow in discipleship, we grow in numbers, and we grow in connection. If we continue to trust God, putting God’s will in front of our own, we will be fruitful. I am calling on each of you to trust that God can even take the dry bones and bring life, that God can take us and make us fruitful and prosperous. We are called to be the church that welcomes all. We are called to love one another. Nothing less is acceptable. Let us move forward in radical hospitality and love.

Forgiveness/ Reconciliation

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 2/24/19

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^NRS Luke 17:3 Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive. ⁴ And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive."

^NRS Ephesians 4:31  Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³² and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Today I want to talk about forgiveness and reconciliation. Are they the same? Does one require the other? What is the right answer? In the coming days these questions are going to need to be answered as we come to grips with differences of understanding, disagreement and anger and potentially the loss of relationships. My hope is that last week when I talked about building bridges you heard that our purpose is not to join the fray of argument but rather to wade into the water so that we can find common ground to stay in relationship. Today the General Conference is doing just that and I hope that within our church family those abilities exist and thrive. We are family and more than anything else, we are here for each other regardless of the world around us.

So I begin today by telling you that God loves you more than you can ever love God. Would you want to argue that statement? What if I said to you that God’s love for us is so great, that no matter what we do it never leaves us. I believe that scripture tells us how much God loves us over and over again. In fact, God loves humanity so much that God has spared humankind on three separate occasions, at the garden, during the flood and on the cross.

An American soldier is on duty in Iraq with his Iraqi counterpart. They are in an area that has shown itself to be friendly to the forces of democracy. The soldier says to the guard, let us go over and say hello. The guard replies, I cannot do that. Why not says the soldier. That man’s family did a terrible thing to my family. Oh, said the soldier, when did that happen? In 1389 says the guard.

A new pastor to the community notices that the two families of the church sit on opposite sides of the pews on Sunday morning and never talk across the aisle to the other family. When he has the congregation pass the peace, a time of sharing and hugging and handshaking, he notices that no one crosses the aisle. One day he asks them to explain why they do not talk to one another. Why young feller, says the patriarch of the one family. They committed a grievous crime agin' my family some years back. Oh, says the pastor, when was that. Why in 1837 says the patriarch.

In both stories, the center focus is on the refusal to forgive and forget some terrible thing one person or one family did to another. The punch line is the length of time that pain still carries the same weight it carried when the crime was committed.

Our scripture today is about forgiveness. Jesus preached on forgiveness and relationship more than any other subject. When Jesus preached on forgiveness, he wanted us to understand that forgiveness is about us, not the one who wronged us. Forgiveness is about seeing the example that God gives us that sets how we are to forgive. Finally, forgiveness is a demand from God, not an optional one. If the God of creation can forgive the sins of the created, then who can enslave us but ourselves? Jesus in Matthew the sixth chapter tells us that if we forgive the sins of those who sin against us, then God will forgive us our sins, but conversely, if we cannot forgive, then we will reap that which we sew and God will not forgive us. Jesus reminds us of this not once in the bible, but at least five times. Forgiveness and reconciliation are practices that give concrete expression to our calling as disciples of Jesus. Why is it important to understand forgiveness in order to be a good disciple? What does it mean to say that one must heal before they can become a healer or one must forgive themselves before they can learn to forgive others? If we cannot find ways to forgive others, then we are the ones who fail to heal. In that lies an important aspect of forgiveness.

1. Forgiveness is possible only when we acknowledge the hurtful impact of a person’s actions on our lives, whether or not the offender intended harm.
2. Forgiveness does not mean accepting behavior or allowing relationships without rules. Forgiveness does not excuse.
3. Forgiveness is the act of releasing your own guilt, shame or anger for the acts you did or were done to you.

Forgiveness in the bible is a way to healing self and re-establishing relationships. Without forgiveness, healing can never happen between you and the ones who wronged you. Ephesians tells us, “³¹ Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, ³² and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” This is the focus of who we are to be. So how does it work? We start by reminding ourselves of all those people that we have thrown in debtor’s prison in our lives. Whom have we thrown in the debtor’s prisons?

Every one of us has a dungeon inside where we hold captive those who owe us for aggravation, insult, cheating, lying, manipulation, or any form of harm. We begin by creating the list of those who are still in the dungeons of our lives. The way we get to them is by realizing that if we still remember the wrong, then we still harbor the anger, fear, or vengeful feelings. Some may disagree with me that we can forgive but not forget. So who is still in the dungeon? Are there any we want to add? We will know they are there if we go in every so often and ‘beat them up’ with angry thoughts, vengeful fantasies, bad wishes and curses, and resentful replays of conversations in which we really ‘tell them off’. We will also know they are there if we are still treating them differently now.

Forgiveness is about letting go of the hurt that others may have caused you, not to excuse them for the thing they did to you, but to let yourself stop suffering from the effects of the thing they did. We can only do that when we acknowledge that the thing they did hurts. Forgiveness is not about excusing the behavior or about saying that the behavior is ok.

I have said in the past that peace at any cost is suicide by proxy. What I mean by that is that if we forgive the deed by allowing the person to believe that we accept the deed as ok, then we give them permission to do it again. Forgiveness is about letting go of the hurt caused by the deed, without accepting the deed as ok. It may mean that we establish rules if the relationship is to go on. Finally, forgiveness is releasing ourselves from the chains that we impose because of the anger and the hurt. Are you holding onto anger and hurt for something someone did to you yesterday, a week ago or even longer? Realize that if this is true, the person in the dungeon is not the person who did the act against us. The person in the dungeon is ourselves imprisoned by the bondage of that hurt. In order to set ourselves free, we have to forgive the person and the act and let it go. Not just forgive, but also forget.

Flora Wuellner, in her book Forgiveness, the Passionate Journey tells us that, “The basis of healthy forgiveness consists of asking these four questions honestly within the presence of God’s love: 

1)     What happened

2)     Who is responsible

3)     How do I feel about what happened

4)     What is my need right now

As children of God, we are to forgive all sins against us, regardless of how much it may have hurt us and move on with our lives.  This understanding will lead us to a better understanding of Jesus himself.  He not only forgave those who continued to follow him when he was on the cross, he forgave us all. 

I believe there are three main points to this act of forgiveness.  The first point is that we are directed.  That means that we have a choice, and yet our choice is whether we will be Christians, not whether we will forgive.  Jesus says to us, seven times seven is the number of times we must forgive those who have hurt us. Forgive or take the chance that we may not be forgiven.  Those are powerful words spoken by Jesus. 

The second point to forgiveness is that we must not judge while forgiving.  Knowing that we must forgive in order to continue to be thriving, growing Christians, we begin to follow Flora Wuellner’s advice.  We first evaluate what happened and who is responsible.  Not in the role of judge, but in the role of analyst.  For you see, in order to forgive, we must first understand.  We must set aside our need for revenge and begin to understand what happened and who the responsible person is, and then we can truly begin to heal.  It may be necessary to evaluate how you feel about what happened and what its impact on your life is.  Often I have prayed to God, God I will forgive him if you just make him pay! Have you said this prayer before?  You see God has been very direct about our roles and his role.  God is the Judge and Jesus will return to judge us all for our actions. 

Finally, there is reconciliation. Reconciliation can only happen after you have forgiven the hurt and moved past it. Once in that new place then the person who caused the harm must do something. Reconciliation cannot happen if the person who harmed you does not see that they hurt you and want to change that. Reconciliation cannot happen when both sides cannot agree to rules and boundaries about behavior. I often tell victims of abuse, forgiveness sets you free from the bondage of that abuse, reconciliation only happens when the other side wants to have a genuine authentic relationship with healthy boundaries and rules.

Today we come to a place where we may need to love one another even as we disagree with one another. Let us learn to interact with love, not hate, with hugs not anger and with understanding not becoming polarized and building walls between us. Jesus said that we should forgive one another as Jesus forgave us on the cross.

Bridging the Divide

Sermon given at Sydenstricker UMC 2/17/19

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^NRS 1 Corinthians 9:16 If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! ¹⁷ For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. ¹⁸ What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel. ¹⁹ For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. ²⁰ To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. ²¹ To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. ²² To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. ²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Many years ago, I was asked to do my first confirmation class. I had no idea how to reach these young people in their language or with their understanding. I remembered reading a great book, Christianity Rediscovered by Father Vincent Donovan. He was sent as a missionary over to Africa to promote the growth of Christianity in the 1950’s. He failed. I remember reading that and thinking of John Wesley’s mission to America in Georgia where he converted zero people to Christ. Father Donovan learned what Paul is teaching us today. We cannot understand the other side until we stop trying to convince them they are wrong and learn what they are saying. Therefore, I had to learn a lesson in the language of youth that told me they could not make the connection between the cross and God’s grace. That is, until I build them a bridge that spanned the great divide with the cross as the bridge.

There is so much wrong with our world today. We have people angry because they recognize that we are not making great progress in race relations. Mind you, we are making progress, but the latest blow-up shows us that we have a long ways to go. We have arguments about abortion and the church stands somewhat silent on when life begins and when we as human beings can choose to be God and end it. The same could be said for capital punishment. We argue over gun control using the victims of senseless acts of evil as if they are punching bags for our pleasure to get the other side to see it our way. We argue that global warming is real or is not real, meanwhile not doing anything significant to change our world for the better. In the 70’s in North Dakota, farmers were already using 100 % Ethanol to fuel their equipment and windmills to generate power and here we are 50 years later still not getting closer to being more effective stewards or our world.  

I could talk about immigration by invoking the scripture that God said to the Israelites in the wilderness about loving the alien in their lands because they were aliens in Egypt but that might fuel the anger even more. Rather we should ask ourselves, do any of us have anything special on anyone today wanting to come here? Using Doctor Phil’s language, we could ask a true Native American how a welcoming posture of immigration is working for them. I hope that I have you all steamed up as I have equally attacked Democrat and Republican’s today. The truth is when we get right down to it; we are so polarized that we cannot even agree on much of anything. We spend our time in angry rhetoric that leaves us nowhere. Father Donovan learned quickly that he could not explain Jesus in terms the people did not understand. So he immersed himself in their culture to learn how to explain love in their language.

I often think about the world that Jesus knew. His world was full of political corruption, infighting among those in the Sanhedrin and constant clashes between Romans and Jews. Poverty was a huge problem with 50-60 % taxation on people, far beyond their ability to live comfortably. Nations were at war with each other over territorial rights, trading issues and greed was rampant. In His own country, racism, sexism and gender issues were a daily issue to be dealt with. Into this world, Jesus walked with love and peace.

Jesus in Matthew 5 reminds us that we are to be the seasoning of life for the world. We are to be salt, which adds taste and preserves. We are to be a light forcing darkness to be abated. That is what Jesus is calling us to be. Salt left out in the cold and the damp loses its taste if not spread over the food. We see that in the winter where salt put on the roads is easily washed away and needs to be replenished when the snow and ice come. How many of us understand that salt is the preservative that allows meat to last and not spoil. We are called by God to be that life force for all the world.

I love the story of the woman at the well.  Jesus talked with a Samaritan woman. Now to understand this picture well, we have to understand what it means to be a Jew and a Samaritan in Jesus day. Samaritans were the Jewish people left behind during the conquest of the Babylonians and Assyrians. When the Jewish people were scattered to the ends of the earth, some did not leave. Those that stayed adopted the lifestyle of the people around them, married and had children. When the Jews returned, they deemed these folks half-breeds. Both Jew and Arab alike left them alone and shunned them. So for a Jewish man to walk into a Samaritan town, much less talk with one, much less a woman at that was against every moral fiber of their culture. In other words, it would be like you and me going into places in Washington DC where people we think are inferior and socializing with them. What would we be thinking?

I also love the story of the adulterous woman. Of course, the Jewish leadership was trying to set Him up. However, what does He do, He does not acknowledge her crime, her failure or her faults. Rather He turns it back on the rest of us. You! I am talking to you over there. You, who believes you are better than this woman, let you reflect for a moment and if you can find no sin within you, go ahead and shun her, better than that, go-ahead and be the first to strike a killing blow. He shows her grace and mercy even though she has done wrong. So what is that saying to you and me? Is grace real or are we just going to let is spoil because we refuse to be the salt that preserves it?  

We are told in Titus; avoid foolishness, genealogies, dissensions and quarrels about the law. There is no profit in doing these things. So what are we supposed to do? We are called to follow Jesus. Simple, right? No, truth is it is difficult and challenging. But we are called to build bridges of love and grace where there is hate. We are called to serve a meal and invite to the table those who are divided so that we can share conversation with one another. In Ephesians, we are reminded that we were once those who were angry, divided and polarized. But Jesus came for us and the blood of Jesus washed us clean. ^ESVEphesians 2: 14 “For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.” Jesus gave all that He had to give so that you and I can be the bridge builders today.

Paul says it well in today’s scripture. He says to us, become the people we hate, become the people we are angry at and become, even if just for a moment, the people we disagree with. Walk for a moment in their shoes and listen to what they are saying. Does not mean you have to agree with them but for a moment, try to see it their way. He said to us in the scripture today, “I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. ²³ I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.” What he means by that is what is important is not the prevailing issue but whether or not we can share grace and love together.

Bridge builders spend a great deal of time searching for the best foundations for the piers that will hold the span for long periods. They work hard at not fighting the elements as much as they find ways of using them to work to their advantage. We are called to do the same thing. What if we began to show love in the face of anger and grace in the face of hate and reminded each other how important it is to be loved? What if we spent our time witnessing to the power of a God who loves us so much that God came into the world to share with us for a while how to be in relationship, true relationship. What if we spent our time wading into the argument not for the sake of arguing, but for the sake of bringing conversation, compromise and understanding?

Our role today is not to join the ranks of the polarized, but to bring positive and negative magnets together to be a strong bonding bridge. We are called to be the light of the world. How do I know? A small group of brace men and women began to do just that two thousand years ago and their efforts changed the world. What if we stopped taking sides and stand in the middle with the cross on our back…..