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We Can Handle It

2/27/2015

Job 7: 1-4, 6-7
Mark 1: 29-39
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany
February 8, 2015
TEXT: "... and He cured many who were suffering"                    Mark 1:33

           There is a story about a couple who had been married for more than thirty years. One evening, when the husband returned from work, he found his wife packing. "What in the world are you doing?" he asked. "I can't handle it anymore," she replied. "I'm tired of all the bickering and arguing and complaining that's been going on between us all these years, I'm leaving." Whereupon, the startled husband suddenly dashed to the bedroom, pulled a suitcase out of the closet, filled it with his belongings and ran after his wife, saying, "I can't handle it any more either. I'm going with you."

           The Old Testament Book of Job tells the story of a man named Job who is at a point in his life where he can't handle it anymore. He expresses himself as a man without hope. In Chapter Seven he complains that life is a "drudgery" ... that his eyes "will never see joy again" ... that he can but "lament the bitterness of his soul" (Jb. 7:1,7,11).

Job's problem, as we discover later, was that he had not turned himself over to God. He kept on complaining, and challenging God, instead of listening to God. But his problem is resolved thirty-seven chapters later when he confesses to the Lord,

I know You are all-powerful...I am the man who obscured your designs
with my empty-headed words.
I have been holding forth on matters I cannot understand, on marvels beyond
me and my knowledge (Job 42:2-3).

Shake Up The World

2/27/2015

Psalm 29
Acts 19: 1-7
Mark 1: 4-11
Second Sunday after Epiphany
January 18, 2015

TEXT: "And just as he was coming out of the water, He saw the heavens
                        torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on Him"
                        Mark 1:10

            During a college music workshop, the great trumpet player, Louis Armstrong, was being asked questions about his early musical training, his trumpet technique, his repertoire, his singing style, etc. Then, a hush came over the audience in anticipation of the legendary Jazzman's answer to a young student's question: "Mr. Armstrong, what is Jazz?" Armstrong thought for a moment, then, with a touch of sympathy in his voice, replied, "If you gotta ask, you ain't got it."

            In today's Gospel Lesson, Mark tells us that "Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee" to the River Jordan where He was baptized. "And just as He was coming out of the water," Mark says, " He saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him" (Mk. 1:9-10).

            Later, Jesus promised His disciples that the Holy Spirit would descend upon them, "to teach them all things." And we are the inheritors of that promise. Our body is the "temple of the Holy Spirit," the Apostle Paul has written (I Cor. 6:19). But what significance does this have for our lives? Does it mean anything at all in terms of how we live, what we do with our lives? Simply put, "What is the Holy Spirit of God?" And, paraphrasing Louis Armstrong we can say, "As long as we have to ask that question, we'll never know." The knowledge comes in the experience. The knowledge is revealed only in the experience.

Just To Touch His Hand

2/27/2015

PSALM 147
Ephesians 3: 16-19
Matthew 2: 1-12
Epiphany
January 4, 2015

TEXT: “ When they saw star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.”                              Matthew 2:10

          Having forgotten to set his alarm clock, and being eager to get to Church on time, a certain pastor was driving well over the speed limit when he was pulled over by a policeman. The officer was unimpressed by the pastor's excuse for being in such a hurry. "Well, reverend," he said, "how would you like me to preach you a nice long sermon?" "Forget the sermon," the pastor replied, "just get to the collection."

          Reading over today's Gospel Lesson, I said to myself, "This is an ideal Sunday for skipping the sermon and just taking up the collection."

          In today's Lesson, Matthew tells us that the star which guided the Wise Men on their journey to see the newborn King "stopped over the place where the child was ." And when the Wise Men saw this, "they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the Child with Mary, His mother,". That was it! The Magi came face-to-face with the newborn King and, without benefit of a sermon or a learned commentary on the Event, "they knelt down and paid him homage" (Mt. 2:10-11).

          Then what happened? "They opened their treasure chests," Matthew tells us, and "they offered Him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh" (Mt. 2:11). (Thus, Matthew skips the sermon and just takes up the collection.)

Love Your Family

2/27/2015

Psalm 148
Isaiah 61:10 – 62:3
Matthew 2:13-23
First Sunday after Christmas
December 28, 2014

"There He made his home in a town called Nazareth" (Matthew 2:23).

An artist desperately desired to paint the most beautiful picture in the world. He went to his pastor and asked, "What is the most beautiful thing in the world?" "Faith," said the pastor, "is the most beautiful thing. You can see it in every Church, in every Community of the Faithful. You can find it at every altar." The artist then asked a young bride the same question. "Love," she replied. "Love builds poverty into riches, sweetens tears, and makes great treasures out of little gifts. Without love, there is not beauty." Then the artist asked a soldier, "What is the most beautiful thing in the world?" "Peace," said the soldier. "War is ugly. Wherever you find peace, you find beauty." The artist thought: "Faith, Love and Peace. How can I paint them?" Then he returned to his household and, entering the door, he saw faith in the eyes of his children. He saw love in the eyes of his wife. And there, in his home, he saw the Peace that Love and Faith had built. So he painted the picture of the "most beautiful thing in the world." And when he had finished, he called it "Home."

The Happiest People in the World

2/25/2015

Psalm 98, Response #2
Matthew 1:18-24
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 21, 2014

TEXT: "... and they shall name him 'Emmanuel' (which means, God is with us)" Matthew 1:23

One night, the Six O'clock News financial reporter said, among other things, "The stock market gained today, and the value of the dollar is up." Hearing this, a seven-year-old asked her father what it meant when the value of the dollar went up. The father tried to give his young daughter the simplest possible explanation. He said, "Since the value is going up, you can buy more with a dollar now than you could before." The daughter thought about this for a while, then she asked, "Do the stores know this?"

In just a few days, we will be celebrating the Event that raised the value of our human hopes and aspirations infinitely. But as we look back over the weeks of preparation for this Event, we might well ask, not only "Do the stores know this?" but also "Do we know this?"

The Final Test

11/28/2014

Psalm 93
Matthew 25: 31-46
Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Reign of Christ
November 23, 2014

In a Bible class, two men were called upon to recite the Twenty-third Psalm. One was an accomplished speaker, trained in the techniques of speech and drama. He intoned the Psalm with great beauty and power:

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters; He restores my soul. He leads me in the path of righteousness for His Name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.

When he had finished, his audience applauded with enthusiasm and asked him to repeat the verses that they might again hear his wonderful rendition. Then the second man recited the same words: "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want ..." But when he finished, not a sound came from his audience. Instead, the people sat quietly, in a deep, mood of prayer and devotion. Then the first man rose and said, "I have a confession to make. The difference between what you have just heard from my friend and what you heard from me is that I know the Psalm; my friend knows the Shepherd."

The Parable of the Last Judgment in today's Gospel Lesson confronts us head-on with one of the great paradoxes of our Christian faith. It is one which many of us have yet to grasp even though we have been members of the Church all our lives. To put it as simply as possible: the very best way to know and experience the Presence of the Lord who is our Shepherd, the very best way to make the inward journey to God, is through the outward journey to others. Or, as one of the early Church Fathers put it centuries ago, "The prodigal son cannot fully experience the Father's love until he has walked the Jericho Road with the Good Samaritan."

Jesus said, "... the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many" (Mt. 20:28). He did this throughout His entire life and, ultimately, on the Cross. And He made it clear in His teaching that those who are His followers are to be women and men for others also. This teaching appears most powerfully in the "Parable of the Last Judgment" which we have just read from the Gospel of Matthew.

A Matter of Life and Death

11/14/2014

Psalm 138
Matthew 25: 1-13
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost
November 9, 2014

A freelance writer in New York City was talking about his childhood. Before his tenth birthday the family had moved five times, each time to a new community. His most vivid memory of each move was seeing his mother cry, always in the new house. He remembered his mother's "broken-hearted weeping" (as he put it) as she unpacked the boxes. He remembered his father saying to him, "Your mother will be all right, son. She is saying good-bye to the friends she has left so she can make new friends here. We must let her grieve."

There is a profound and valuable Biblical principal at work in this simple incident. One of the clearest statements of this principal is found in John's Gospel -- the "Resurrection" Gospel. John's Gospel divides into two parts. In the first part, John builds the story of Jesus' public ministry around resurrection signs. The very first of these signs occurs when Jesus changes water into wine at the marriage feast in Cana. The miraculous transformation of water into wine was a sign of God working in our lives to transform sorrow into joy, despair into hope, death into life. Again and again in John's first eleven chapters we find references to resurrection. The climax comes in the eleventh chapter with still another great resurrection sign: the raising of Lazarus from the dead. In the midst of this episode Jesus says, "I am the Resurrection." Then there is a change: from chapter twelve on, the Apostle John tells the story of Jesus' own death and Resurrection. Set in between these two sections of the Gospel, like a diamond in a beautiful setting, there is a saying of Jesus taken from the world of nature. It reads, "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit" (Jn. 12:24). All of nature witnesses to the Divinely created cycle of death and rebirth. And in His own death and Resurrection, Jesus witnesses to the cycle's presence in our own human condition.

Create Something Beautiful

10/13/2013

PSALM 23, Response #1
Luke 17: 11-19
TWENTY-FIRST SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

TEXT:   "... he turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he
        prostrated himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him."
       Luke 17:15-16

   Many years ago a boat was wrecked in a storm on one of the Great Lakes. Rescuing teams were sent to help, including one made up of Northwestern University students. One student, a young man named Edward Spencer, rescued at least sixteen people from the sinking ship. When he was carried exhausted from the scene, he could only say, "Did I do my best? Do you think I did my best?" Years later, at a class reunion, one of the speakers recalled this act of heroism. Someone called out that Edward Spencer was present in the audience. Spencer was invited to come forward. Old and gray now, he made his way to the podium as the assembly cheered and applauded. The speaker asked him what in particular did he remember most about the event. "Only this," he replied, "of the sixteen or seventeen people I saved, not one of them thanked me."

THE PIECES DON'T FIT

10/6/2013

Psalm 148
Luke 17: 5-10
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

TEXT:   "The Apostles said to the Lord, 'Increase our Faith! "
       Luke 17:5

   In one of his plays, Tennessee Williams tells about a mentally ill woman who is sitting at a card table set up in her garden, working a jig-saw puzzle. She is extremely tense. Her hands are shaking. She tries to force the pieces together that don't fit. Some of the pieces fall off the table. The woman becomes more and more agitated. Finally, she looks up at her daughter and says poignantly, "The pieces don't fit together! The pieces don't fit together!" That is the way it is for many people today. The pieces just will not fit together for them--and never will until they discover Faith in the Gracious God who is always working in us and around us to give us life. This God, this Creative Force, this Energy (spelled with a capital "E"), not only is deep within us, but also is pulsating in the world all around us--in other human beings and in what we call "nature." And if we take a good look out there, we can see the tragic result when men become estranged from this reality. We can see the chaos that ensues when Faith in the creative, energizing, life-giving presence of God in the world is diminished and even lost.

Starting From Scratch

9/15/2013

Psalm 105
Luke 15: 11-32
Seventeenth Day after Pentecost
TEXT: "He ran (to the boy) and put his arms around him and kissed him"
(Luke 15:20).

Human families set mankind apart from all other living creatures. Who else but human parents have children they can call their own for longer than it takes to set them on their feet or on their way? Even the most "affectionate" animals -- the vixen, the bear, the lioness -- teach their cubs to make their own way in the world and then forget them. After the eagle has taught her eaglet to fly, she will see it no more. Calf, colt, grasshopper, dragonfly -- all go their separate ways as soon as they can. Only humans stand with their children from first to last, from birth to death. In other words, only the society of humanity is held together by the bond of love.