Sermon Texts

Have you heard about the Coronavirus?

Of course, you have. It continues to be the lead news-story – even with many other pressing and frightening issues. The Coronavirus has killed 1500 people worldwide, and many thousands of cases have been recorded., which generates such fear and concern. And there is the quarantined cruise ship in Japan with now more than 200 infected people onboard.

Coronavirus is a respiratory illness with pneumonia like symptoms that originated in a central province in China and has been spreading across the world, so it is called a pandemic. Both the World Health Organization and the US have declared public health emergencies.

Standard recommendations to prevent infection are familiar - regular hand washing, covering mouth and nose when coughing and sneezing, thoroughly cooking meat and eggs. We are also asked to avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness such as coughing and sneezing. Unfortunately, in some parts of the world, coughing on public transportation has become as threatening as pulling out a gun.

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            The gospel stories – Matthew, Mark, Luke, John – which give us the story of Jesus’ life, teachings, miracles, death, and resurrection, move along at a quick pace. It was just some days ago when we were singing “Away In A Manger,” celebrating the birth of Jesus, singing “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” Today, we have already heard the story of Jesus’ Baptism – and it is not an infant baptism: “Jesus came from Galilee to John at the river Jordan.” He was an adult – who came out of the water, and suddenly the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended, like a dove, and then the voice from heaven: “this is my son, the Beloved.”

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   Approximately 10 days ago, most of us gathered for worship on Christmas Eve – here in this sanctuary, or maybe somewhere else. We read the Christmas story from Luke’s gospel. We sang lovely Christmas carols. We gathered at the Communion table; and then, at least in this Sanctuary, we formed a large circle and lit candles and affirmed the great promises of Christmas –

-          the Light of the world comes into the human world;

-          the Light shines in the darkness and no darkness can overcome Christ’s light.

These are powerful and memorable moments – holding candles, singing – that intend to shape our faith and form us for living faithfully.

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            In 1997, Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen coined the phrase “disruptive innovation.” Before that, DISRUPTION – our word for the day - had a negative connotation. Power outages disrupted our lives. Children disrupted our sleep. Illness and diagnoses disrupted our plans. Well, no longer. Within a few years following 1997, Silicon Valley was disrupting everything with innovation – how we buy things, from household items, to clothes, to cars. We have seen disruptive changes in the publishing industry, the news industry, the travel industry, and almost every other aspect of our lives. (Sports Illustrated, 12/2/2019, p.72)

Ginger and I recently saw the latest Tom Hanks movie “It’s A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” – about the wonderful Presbyterian minister from Pittsburgh, Fred Rogers. It is less a movie about Fred Rogers and his important ministry. It is a more a movie of the impact that Fred Rogers had on people – his compassion, his sensitivity, his presence with people all helped to create a DISRUPTION in the way people think about life, relate to one another, connect with one another.

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  If you have not seen the new movie, “Harriet,” – about the inspiring life and amazing accomplishments of Harriet Tubman - I hope you will see it soon. Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in eastern Maryland; but she determined as a young woman that she would either live free or die.

In one most memorable scene in the movie, as she is running for her freedom, Harriet’s father told her to stop by the church; the preacher could help her. The preacher tried hard to dissuade Harriet from running away – she could not read, she was so young, it was too dangerous, and she would be caught, and maybe killed. Harriet insisted that she was not turning back. She would, as she says numerous times, “either live free, or die.”

Then the preacher said, “Ok, Harriet. I have two things you must know, and never forget.” He said, “First, fear is your enemy.” If you give into fear, he said, you have no chance. Then, second, he told her which way to go and the name and address of a person in Philadelphia. And off she went – going 100 miles to Philadelphia, going not just to freedom, but to a life committed to freeing so many slaves, serving in the Union army, giving all her energy to destroy the horrific institution of slavery.

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  When you notice the sermon title today, I wonder what comes to mind. Is “SALVATION” a positive word or a negative word for you?

            SALVATION is a very important word for people of faith. It intends to name the yearning, the desire, the hope, the purpose of faithful life.

            But it is also a word that can carry a lot of baggage for people.

            Is it more a positive word or a negative word for you?

            Unfortunately, SALVATION has too often been associated with “going to heaven.” It has been assumed to be about the afterlife. Many of us might have connected SALVATION with the either/or proposition of heaven or hell. Through the generations, Christianity has been, unfortunately, presented as mostly about being saved, which gives us SALVATION. But that can be very negative – do you believe enough, or behave well enough, to really appreciate SALVATION that comes from God? SALVATION conversations can easily generate anxiety and fear. SALVATION conversations have certainly led to exclusion – people being told they are not worthy, do not belong.  Where is the grace of God? Where is the good news in a faith that mostly generates anxiety, fear, and exclusion? SALVATION can be a very complicated and negative word.

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As you may know, fall is the time when it is best to tend to the grass in your yard. We have a very small plot of grass in our backyard, but the heat of the summer and the aridness of the fall makes our backyard look more like a wasteland. We have big patches where the grass is really struggling, and other areas where the grass has disappeared. So we gave the yard some attention this week – aerating and putting out new grass seed in hopes that the yard might regenerate itself by springtime. We did this on Tuesday. On Wednesday we had so much rain that everything we did was washed away. And today with all the rain, maybe it is washing away again.

​New grass seed is really not that important. But what happened this week just reminds me again that life is often a never ending struggle – pushing back, fighting against the destructive forces - working for beauty, peace, serenity, and calm. It is ongoing.

My former professor and renowned Biblical scholar, Walter Brueggemann, speaks often about how "the world comes at us in destructive and pathological ways.”

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   There is an interesting and wonderful line in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and the main character in that book, Gandalf, speaks well with a biblical response.

            Describing the difficult days they were facing, Frodo says this: “I wish it need not have happened in my time.”

            “So do I, says Gandalf, “and so do all who live in such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given.” (see J. Wallis, Christ in Crisis, “the Road Ahead,” loc 3750)

            We have only so much control of what happens in the world. We often wish things did not happen in our times. But Gandalf speaks such truth – “all we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given.”

            We certainly find ourselves in difficult times in these days – so much rancor and division, perhaps a constitutional crisis. The situation seems to change, maybe worsen, everyday. We also have climate issues,  and world tensions, and a volatile global economy, and more.

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Our eschatology shapes our ethics. (I hope you will lean in and think with me on this.)

            Eschatology is a theological word for “last things.” How we think about “last things” should shape how we live – our ethics.

Put another way - what you believe about the future shapes, informs, and determines how you live now.

So, our eschatology shapes our ethics. Does that make sense?

Now, what Jesus taught, what the prophets taught, what so much of the Jewish tradition pointed to, and everything that Jesus lived in anticipation of, was that day when earth and heaven would be one.

What the whole Bible points toward – what Jesus preached and embodied - the Kingdom of God - the day when God’s will would be done “on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus comes to inaugurate the Kingdom of God – it is already here in him and his teachings and actions – and it is also yet to come in fullness. Last things.

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The year was July, 1970. Serene Jones was a little girl living in Richardson, TX. Her father was a professor at Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. It was also Serene’s eleventh birthday.

            Here is how Serene recounts it: “My parents had planned a pool party at my request, and I had, in the days prior, turned the event into an overdramatic, self-involved stage play. The car weaved through the neighborhood as we picked up friend after friend, and each girl squeezed into the back seat, filling it with new bits of gossip and girl-speak, . . . We picked up the last invitee, and she had to stretch out across our laps to fit in. None of us were wearing seatbelts, of course. . . .

            We pulled up to the Richardson public pool and it was clear to everyone that it was closed. My dad drove closer to the entrance and got out. I could make out the hand-written sign: CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE.

            My dad looked up at the sky like he always did when he faced a conundrum. He wasn’t praying or asking for divine intervention, but I think the habit of praying and the sensation of being perplexed had somehow become one and the same for him.

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Here we are on Rally Day – the fresh start on a new church year. Church School kicks off with new classes and good opportunities for fellowship and nurture. Worship returns to 11:00am – making it easier for some of us to get to church. The choir is back – thanks be to God! –offering so much with their gifts and voices to our worship experience.  We have other opportunities in place too to engage us, encourage us, and deepen connections and faith as we move into this new season.

            But here is a question: are we – the congregation gathered – mostly good people who come to church to be a little bit better? Are we here so that Christian faith can mostly just help us along our way?

            I remember a wonderful quote from one of my mentors – William Sloane Coffin: “It is often said that the Church is a crutch. Of course it’s a crutch. But what makes you think you don’t limp?” (Credo, p. 137)

            We do need a crutch for our limp: community, worship, encouragement in faith, places to grow and serve together – all these help us with our limp.

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  In some quiet moments of study and reflection in my 3rd floor office this week, a certain old book from my shelf got my attention ( I got lots of books!). I purchased this book while in Seminary in the mid-1980’s. The author is a world famous Catholic theologian named Hans Kung. The book is small and succinct and entitled, Why I Am Still A Christian. This book was next to another book that I was looking for – but it is this one by Kung that got my rapt attention.

            This is how the book opens: “What can I rely on today? What can we hold to? I am not a pessimist, but we scarcely need reminding that we are now in a ‘crisis’ of values as profound as it is far-reaching.”  Kung continues: “This large scale crisis of values has thrown modern society into conflicts which have not yet by any means been resolved. . . . How do we lay down priorities and preferences? . . .How do we know what we can rely on?”  (see H. Kung, p. 19-20)

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  The word for today is GENEROSITY. This is a very important attribute of the faithful life. God wants all of us to grow in faith, . . . . and GENEROSITY. GENEROSITY is a gift of the Spirit; it is a sign of mature faith. GENEROSITY is also a certain avenue to joy, which is another fine attribute of faith. When we are generous, we discover more joy!

            In some devotional reading this week, I can upon an intriguing and also indicting quote from the spiritual writer, Thomas Merton. Merton describes our tendency to keep our distance from God. Merton warns that many Christians "are not really interested in God, except in order to insure themselves against losing heaven and going to hell.” Many Christians, he says, “confine their interior life to a few routine exercises of piety (think prayers before meals or bedtime) and a few external acts of worship and service performed as a matter of duty. Such people,” Merton says, “are careful to avoid sin. They respect God as a Master. (And here is where it gets indicting. . . ) In actual practice, their minds and hearts are taken up with their own ambitions and troubles and comforts and pleasures and all their worldly interests and anxieties and fears. God is only invited to enter this charmed circle to smooth difficulties and to dispense rewards.” (See Devotional Classics, 18)

Ouch. We need to keep tending to our faithful lives so that this is not a description of us. God is NOT finished with us.

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  “The God of love had a really bad week.”

            That is the title of an opinion piece written recently by Diana Butler Bass for CNN. She wrote it following the infamous political rally in NC where a crowd chanted over and over: “Send her back.”

            Diana Butler Bass has long been a faithful and effective commentator on American Christianity. She has written many important books about the changes in Christianity in our country. In this recent article, she ponders how so many people at that rally – likely white evangelical Christians – could chant “send her back.” Had they forgotten that Sunday School song: “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world”?

            “The God of love had a really bad week.”

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  David Brooks writes a regular and thoughtful column for the NY Times. David Brooks also writes good books - books that have inspired me and many across the land. Brooks has become, not just a distinguished writer, but an important voice that keeps calling us to our better selves, to higher community values, to be our best as people and as a nation.

            In David Brooks’ most recent book, Second Mountain, he addresses an important and familiar topic for him: what is it that gives meaning and purpose, depth and value to life? That is a worthwhile pursuit. In Second Mountain, Brooks explores the four commitments that define a life of meaning and purpose:

-          commitment to a spouse and family

-          commitment to a vocation

-          commitment to a philosophy or faith tradition

-          commitment to a community.

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  FREEDOM!  This has always been a big word in American history and culture. It is a significant word this week as we come once again upon Independence Day.

            We find ourselves today just a few blocks from where Patrick Henry said this in 1775, before the colonists had gained FREEDOM from Great Britain: "I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me . . .  (say it with me) liberty or give me death."

            We find ourselves in this great commonwealth, in the shadow of the Capital designed by Thomas Jefferson, who is famous for lots of things, but especially known for writing these words from the Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights-that among these are . . .  (you recall them?) . . . life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

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            Many of you know that my upbringing had me absolutely enfolded into the Presbyterian family of the Christian tradition. My father was a Presbyterian minister. My earliest life and memories include riding my tricycle on the sidewalks just outside of the church sanctuary, because the manse where we lived was next to the church. I got into mischief racing my brothers on our bellies underneath the pews of the sanctuary at First Presbyterian Church, Auburn, AL. Going weekly to Sunday School and Worship, participating in Confirmation, going to Youth group – these are the things that totally shaped my life. I remain so blessed to be nurtured in a loving, faith-filled home.

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What do you do with what happens to you?

            I remember it like it was yesterday. Our daughter, in the seventh grade at the time, had had a terrible day with some friends at school. I was sitting on the side of her bed as she was trying to go to sleep. The tears were flowing. In her mind, her world was falling apart. I felt so sad for her and frustrated that I could not help, could not console her, could not help her understand that everything would work out. So after a pause, I tried a new tactic. I said, “you know how when you are riding your bike, you come upon gravel, and the gravel feels unsteady sometimes, making the wheel slip and you might even fall.” She said, through her tears, “Oh, dad. . . . yeah, ok.”

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