Put Jesus Where He Belongs!

       The Gospel text for Sunday's sermon was the story of Jesus calming the storm while he and the disciples are in the boat (Mark 4: 35-41).  The disciples are afraid of drowning in the storm and wake Jesus up to do something.  They confront him and ask him, "Don't you care that we are about to die?"  They need proof that Jesus cares.  So I talked about being afraid in storms both in the childrens' sermon and the other one.

        After worship, one of the members told me this story from her childhood:

       She shared a room and bed with her sister who is seven years older than her.  One night during a bad thunderstorm, she got scared and cuddled up next to her sister.  Then her sister woke her up and asked her,why was she sleeping in the middle of the bed?  She answered, "Because Jesus is sleeping on the other side".

       Her older sister replied, "Well put Jesus in your heart where he belongs and there will be more room for the both of us!"

       Sometimes the storms of life are literally storms; the lightening and thunder and the possibility of floods and tornadoes.  If you have ever been through disaster caused by storm, even a dark cloudy sky starts to raise your anxiety.   Even as adults, we find ourselves fearful, wondering what will happen next.

       At other times, we get pummeled and tossed about by other events in our lives that we cannot control.  It may be illness (our own or someone we love), divorce, addiction, abuse, losing a job, or being in overwhelming debt.  In all of these, we need to be reassured, comforted, and kept safe.  It is at those times when we need "Jesus in our heart"; that feeling that God is with us.   

      Then the question becomes how do we get Jesus in our heart or how know God is with and within us? It is a question that cultures and religions have wondered about through all the millennia.  Within Christianity and in other religions there has been a common thread: ways that one can work their way towards holiness, or spirituality or finding your inner god.  The problem is the fact that humans are flawed and make this task impossible.  One of the human solutions to this is the theory of reincarnation; that you can keep coming back until you get it right.
        But God has a different solution.  God being in and with us is not something that we choose or merit or make happen.  God has chosen to come to us and into us.  The promise was given even in the book of Jeremiah (31:33-34) that the words of God will be written on our hearts.  God's promise is this gift of grace, signified by the fact that God forgives us all our  sins, failings, and brokenness.
       It is the new thing that Jesus teaches and gives: the people of God's family will never be left alone or forgotten.  Jesus is forever with us.  The gift of God's Spirit comes to us in the reading and preaching of the Word, in the water of baptism, and in the bread and wine of the holy meal.  If any of those things have happened to us, we have encountered God.  It is the promise given to you.
        But as for the times when we need a real person to be with us, that is why we are called into this glorious mixed hash of God's family of all kinds, shapes, colors, and personalities.  When we reach out to each other, we become Jesus with skin-on.  The care that we give, the love that we share is bigger and more powerful than just our own.  Coming to faith is not a perilous and hard trek that we must make on our seeking, seeking wisdom but instead it is the gift of belonging to God.  Read Matthew 28:19-20.

Take God On Your Next Trip

       I have an ongoing list I keep threatening to publish.  It goes like this: "You know you live in a small town when..."  One of those things happened to me the other day.
       I drove up to the window at the bank to deposit my check and instead of being asked for my account numbers, my driver's license, my fingerprints, and the maiden name of my ninth cousin twice removed, I was greeted with, "Hey! You got your hair cut.  It looks cute."  It was a great experience of the advantages of small town community banking.
       A few years ago, I was asked why I like rural ministry.  I love the advantages of small town, rural life.  And I love the commute.  I may drive an hour or more to a meeting (or sometimes between churches) but instead of doing it in bumper-to-bumper traffic, eating exhaust fumes, I get to spend the time watching the changing seasons and sights of creation all around me.
       Here's another way to put it: while I'm driving to work, I get to see sights that most people only get to see after working 50 weeks of the year to earn their vacation.  I see the changing foliage, wildflowers, the full colors of autumn trees, and the fields from first growth through harvest.  I've seen double and triple rainbows, funnel clouds, and Technicolor sunsets.  I have seen all kinds of wildlife from eagles and hawks and great horned owls to deer and elk, bobcats, and even a cougar that ran alongside the car before veering off the road into the field.
       I was on my way to worship early one morning when I saw the cougar.  At first I thought I saw a deer or a large dog ahead of me on the other side of the road so I started slowing way down.  But it came out of the ditch and loped onto the road and towards me and then by the car before it took off into the field and disappeared.  I was struck not only by its power and beauty but also how big it looked up close and free versus seeing big cats at the zoo.
       Now I know that everybody doesn't have a commute like mine, but I still encourage you to look around you as you ride, or bike, or walk.  The secret to seeing creation in a way that fills your soul, is to be open to seeing and appreciating what is around us.  Sometimes we get to see the kinds of beauty that would fill calendar pages but if we only look for mountain scenes and big sky sunset views, we miss the smaller gauge wonders that are all around us in our daily lives.
       God's eye not only paints the kind of scenes that fill the horizon but also in works in miniature.  If we aren't looking, we may miss the miracles of butterflies, a tiny hummingbird, a spider's web, or the mushrooms that sprout only after a good rain.  We tend to think of God in words of the hymn "How Great Thou Art" all mighty thunder and power but God's love and power are just as much in the smallest things of life.
       In fact Jesus teaches us that God watches over creation from a sparrow to even counting the hairs on our head.  God's love and creative powers are at work even in the smallest wonders, even the tiniest, briefest pieces of the universe found inside atoms.  All of creation, all particles, are God's particles.
      When it comes to seeing beauty in the world around you, binoculars and a camera can be good tools to take along but also take along your faith.  Nourish it with prayer and some bible reading (such as Genesis 1, Psalm 8, Job 38-39).  Open your heart to open your eyes to see the people and the world around you not through the filter of yourself but as glimpses into the love and wonder of God.  Read Luke 12:4-7.

Water! Now!

       Being this far north, it starts getting light out really early in the day.  By five o'clock in the morning, it is starting to get light enough to move around the house without turning a light on.  This is either a perk that helps make up for longer, colder winters or it can be drawback depending on your point of view because as the day starts to brighten, birds, animals, and people start to wake up.
       Singing birds are lyrical and are a wonderful reminder of the warmer days and the pull to be outdoors to enjoy the wonders of creation.  Even to a morning curmudgeon like me (I am not a morning person), I enjoy early morning bird song.  Just not when my sleep has been rudely interrupted.
       We have a small black and white tuxedo cat who has been the very definition of "cattitude" since son Ben rescued her and brought her home.  At barely five weeks old and dumped on the highway, she was set on the floor to meet our three adult cats.  She promptly growled and ran up and attacked the largest (and grumpiest) one on the nose.  As I said, "cattitude".
      My husband and I were away for a few days and we have been paying for it ever since.  She has taken to waking me up as soon as it becomes light.  She began by jumping up onto the dresser across from the bed and then jumping from up there down on to me and then sets to meowing in a very demanding manner.
      Why?  She wants one of us to get up and turn on the water in the bathroom so that she can get her morning drink.  (We have joked about the pros and cons of getting a "touch" facet that she could turn on herself but I couldn't stand the thought of water getting wasted.)
       "Meow!  Meow!  Meow!..." she cries continuously.  Water!  Now!
       All living things need water.  People need water to survive: clean, safe water.
       According to the World Health Organization, half of the patients in hospitals in the developing world are suffering from sanitation and water-related diseases.  Lack of safe water and sanitation kills over 1.6 million children a year.
       Living surrounded by farmland and farmers and gardeners, people around here are crying for water as they watch crops turn brown.  We really need a whole day of steady rain that comes slowly enough to just soak in.  It was a dry fall and winter and dry now.  People are getting worried.  The need for rain has been a topic of conversation at our council meeting, when I see people around church and town, and even when visiting people in the hospital and nursing home.  I have been asked several times to pray for rain and it is included in our prayers at worship.
       Water!  Now!
      Even though clean water is as close as our faucet, we still come praying to God for water.   A time of drought can bring us to our knees in prayer, reminding us that all life is in God's hands and that despite all our technological advantages and wealth, we don't have the power and control we like to think is ours.   It can be an opportunity for us to pause and think about how our lives rely upon having the water we need and the impact of our use and waste of water upon the world and those who don't have access to clean water.
       There are many places in the Bible where the saving grace of God is imaged in the abundance of life-giving water.  We need to take seriously the connection between life and water and seek God's will and wisdom in our use and protection of this resource.  Beyond that, we need to think beyond our own need to ensuring that more and more people have access to safe, clean water.  Water and life and God's grace intertwine so much that is a clear reminder that we dare not separate faith from what we do in our daily lives; even to turning on the faucet.  Read Isaiah 35:3-7.
   

Finding Home

       After repeated years of Spring floods, we have had a calm spring up north here in the Red River Valley.  In fact, the end of winter found us short of moisture.   We hadn't gotten rains in the fall, and we were comparatively low for snow cover.   Now don't get me wrong, the people up here are relieved to have a spring without filling sand bags and watching rising river levels.
       People are happy, but it has caused some confusion for migrating birds.
       Other years, fields have been changed into temporary lakes just in time for the migration of geese, swans, coots, ducks, and other waterfowl.  In past flooded springs, they could be seen for weeks by the thousands as they rested and nested in water-covered beet and wheat fields.   What caused destruction and chaos for people was a temporary haven for the birds.
       But this spring, most of the huge flocks passed through quickly without the water to attract them in large numbers.
       However, there seem to have been a few pairs of geese that have been confused by the lack of "lakes" and have been seen wondering the edges of fields as if looking for their nesting places.  But instead of quiet fields of abundant water, they found dry fields and anxious farmers eager to be out working and plowing the fields.  It didn't take most of the geese long to decide to move on to more favorable nesting grounds.
       There is in many migratory species this need to return to where they came from, the need to go home.  The delicate Monarch butterfly migrates back and forth from Canada to Mexico and Baja California even though no one butterfly actually survives to make it make home because it takes 3-4 generations of butterflies to make the trip!
       One of the huge changes over the two centuries has been the movement of people from the places they came from to more and more mobile lives.  Instead of coming from villages and towns where our ancestors have lived for generations, not only have many of us migrated to new countries but also we have not settled down in one new place.
       The economy and the realities of modern jobs have flung families all across our country and even further.   Instead of having built-in support systems within a multi-generational family, we are often on our own in a new place.
       We can (and do) turn to resources and friends on the Internet for advice and help.  But we also need real people and we need a place that gives us a sense of safety and security.
       In John 15:4 (and the following verses), Jesus invites us, tells us to 'abide in him' - to dwell, live in Jesus.  Following Jesus in this matter can give us the peace and sense of belonging that we need in the midst of  so much change and chaos.
        Gathering together with other people of faith around the Word and sacraments provide an anchor and identity, purpose, and help direct us in the way to live.  In a world where so much changes so quickly, we can be at rest, finding our home in God.  Read Psalm 84:1-4

Feasting, Lumps and All!

       When I was growing up, my mom was always saying that my brothers had hollow legs.  I was never quite sure what she meant until I had sons of my own and they started growing.  I think they were always hungry!  They would come home from school and go through the kitchen looking for something to eat.  I learned how to be prepared or else the kitchen would look like a hoard of locusts had gone through and eaten everything in sight!
       This willingness to eat anything and everything came in handy though.
       One time when my parents were gone for several days, I was left in the care of my older brothers and sisters.  At the ripe age of twelve, I decided I was going to show off my cooking skills by making fried chicken and gravy with mashed potatoes and some can of vegetables.  I did okay until it came to making gravy.
       I knew that mom would make gravy by mixing flour into the fat in the pan.  The step that I missed was that she would pour off all but a couple of tablespoons of grease.  So I put it flour and flour and flour, trying to make a roux.  It was a good thing I was using the big and deep chicken pan, because after cooking that a bit and scraping up all the good flavor bits, I began adding milk and water to make the gravy and it took more and more liquid to keep from becoming a thick paste.  By the time supper was ready, I had a huge pan full of gravy!
       By the time the gravy started to cool a bit, it got thick enough to spread with a knife.  I was so embarrassed, especially as my oldest brother had a friend from college with him.  But the guys thought it was great! (I don't remember where my sisters where that night.)
       After everything else was eaten, one of them went to the kitchen and got a loaf of bread and they proceeded to pile bread and gravy onto their plates, and eating their way through it.  They loved it and did a good job of making that terrible gravy disappear!  They said later that it was a wonderful feast and would I do it again some time.
       From birth, children go through growth spurts where their bodies demand more calories.  It is demanding and can be tiring to keep up with it especially when nursing a baby, but how wonderful a blessing it is when you have the resources to give them the resources they need.  And how awful it must be to not have enough food to give your children.
       Perhaps that is why that there are many places in the Bible where God's love, blessings and grace are equated with feasts and gathering together God's people to feed them.  Just before his crucifixion and after the resurrection, Jesus tells the disciples to gather at the table to eat together and to go from there to serve those in need.  We "do this to remember" Jesus.
       It is no wonder then that so much research has shown that the best thing we can do for our families is to eat together.  The family meal is the best prevention of drug abuse, dropping out of school, and other things such as teen-age pregnancy.  It is a powerful thing when we gather together at the table and share a meal.  Even of lumpy, spreadable gravy on white bread or boxed macaroni and cheese.  Make a meal to share and begin with prayer, inviting God to share your table.  Read Isaiah 25:6-8

Looking for Love

       (I realized recently that I have not really addressed Easter in my blog this year.  Not only has it been very busy, but also I was really concentrating my energy on my preaching.  So I am going to share some of Holy Week's preaching with you.)

       During Good Friday worship, people are invited to spend time meditating upon the empty cross.  As it is carried forward in procession, you hear these words being spoken three times, “Behold the life-giving cross on which was hung the salvation of the whole world.”  The response is “O Come, let us worship him.”
       Let us worship him.  Him who?  We know the answer.  The one we worship is the Christ, our lord Jesus.  We will say these words knowing that.  And yet, what we are actually beholding, what we actually will see is an empty cross.
       The words are spoken as if Jesus is here on the cross and we can see him.  Behold!  See! It’s Jesus!

       But it is not.  The cross is empty.

       That is the conundrum, the puzzle of Good Friday.

We come to the cross.  We come to see and worship the crucified Jesus, the Jesus nailed to, bleeding, and dying on the cross.  The Jesus with the blood running from the welts of the whip-lashing and the thorns of the cruel crown on his head poking into his head. 

       We come to see the beaten Jesus, and many today will cry at the cross, to see that sight in their minds and heart.

       BUT --- and this is huge --- The cross we see is empty. 

       "Behold" the liturgy tells us.  Worship the cross, but Jesus is not there. 

       We are asked to spend time meditating, thinking, and praying on that empty cross.  What do you see in your mind’s eye when you gaze at that despised tree?

       When you look at a cross or a picture of one, you might see in your mind’s eye a bloody Jesus, or the empty cross in the darkness of that fell on Jerusalem that first Friday or you might even imagine the empty cross shining in the sun that first Sunday.  However you see the cross, this is what my prayer is for you.

       Behold the love of God.  Look at the cross and see the height and depth, the strength, and the richness of God’s love for the world  --- and for you.  That is the reason that drove Jesus to the cross; God’s love.

       Now there are a lot of people who will preach and argue us to the cross to scare us.  It’s as if to say that since God is willing to do that to the beloved Son, what will happen to those who don’t believe?  They will tell us that we had better worry about getting saved because if we aren’t saved their way, God is going to get us and not just once but forever and ever.

      There have many times in the church’s history over the last two thousand years when the focus of theology and preaching has been full of fire and brimstone talk of hell to scare people into Jesus.

       But that is NOT what Jesus said.

       I have had conversation recently about someone’s grandchild who is scared of God because God gets mad.  Is that true?

       My response to them is what I want you to reflect on today.  Jesus says in John 3:16 & 17: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

       Jesus came to earth, gave himself up to betrayal and trial, hung on the cross, died on the cross, and rose from the dead, for one reason and one reason only.  For God so loved the world.

       And my response to those who would scare people into faith is what Jesus says: “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save it – to save us.  God’s will and action is love.

       Today, I invite you to look on the cruel and even bloody cross, not to feel bad or guilty or to scare you into faith (as if that works), but I invite you to see the immensity of God’s love for you that Jesus did this, FOR YOU!

       Pray that you may see God’s love!  Read John 3:16-17

We Need a Nap!

       I had a great conversation with a friend yesterday.  One of the things we talked about was how busy and jammed-packed our lives have been of late.  And then of course, we talked about how tired we both felt.   It seems like it is not only a common conversation but also a universal experience. Are we are all rushed, tired, harried, and harassed?
       It seems like it.
       When I was young, I remember that summer seemed to stretch on forever; the wait for Christmas was agonizing, and good things never happened quickly enough.  Older people commonly talk about how time seems to pass more quickly as we age.  And I was willing to accept this as the reason time feels more rushed.  And that may indeed be part of what is happening (I can't deny it, we all do get older!).  But that doesn't explain it all.
       Our time really is getting pushed to and beyond our limits.
       Commercials now try to sell us new phones and services by telling us how unacceptable it is if our information is 29 or 14 seconds behind.  If we are even 27 seconds behind, we will have already missed our chance to participate in a party, give a gift, or say goodbye.
       The effects of this time compression are aggravated by the fact that the lines between our personal and work lives have become blurred.  As our electronic gadgets have become smaller and more portable, people assume we should be instantly available to one another.  Several years ago, there were articles about how we could make better use of our time by multi-tasking while waiting in line or at the doctor's office.  Now it is not uncommon to see people texting while sitting in a meeting or eating dinner with someone else.  Young people are exhausted, texting into the night and or sleeping with their phones so they don't miss anything.
       It has gotten hard for us to just do one thing at a time.
       This is taking a toll on us, spiritually, physically, and emotionally.  Tired and rushed people have a harder time being creative and are not as good at problem solving.  Our immune systems don't work as well, so we tend to pick up all the viruses and bugs going around.  We have less patience, less tolerance for change, and we are more irritable.  It's no wonder that stressed people have a lower opinion of their quality of life.
       Everything stinks when you are tired!  Even when we want to be positive, we have fewer resources to allow us respond positively.
       We need a collective nap.
       From the beginning, God modeled a different way.  For six days, God worked at creative the universe and all that it contains and on the seventh day, God rested.  One of the first commandments given was the command to keep the sabbath day, the seventh day of rest.  And not just those in charge but everyone, including children, servants, and work animals.  Rest, time completely away and apart from work is vitally important to our health.  In Deuteronomy, God reminds the people that life without sabbath rest is like their years in slavery.  We are a freed people and we honor God by taking holy rest.
       Even on our "work" days, we need to slow our lives down and give ourselves and others the gift of grace.  Our worth and value do not depend on a life lived in increments of seconds.  Take time to pray, to breathe, to pause, and to be in relationship, not with a gadget but with each other.  Read Deuteronomy 5:12-15.