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My heart beats for love. I want to be different. I want to be who I am called to be. WORTHY and LOVED!

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Neh 8: 1-3, 5-6, 8-10 - Rebuilding


Last week we looked at the end of the Book of Isaiah and how the prophet had to stand between God and the dejected people. This week’s scripture fasts forward. The people have made it to Jerusalem and have been working on rebuilding the city and its walls under the direction of Ezra and Nehemiah. The people are doing this not only because God has commanded them to, but because they see it as an act of worship, a way to show their devotion to God. Every time I read Ezra-Nehemiah, I cannot help but hear the words of the song “Beautiful City” from Godspell playing through my mind. “Out of the ruins and rubble, out of the smoke, out of the night of struggle, can we see the ray of hope.” and “Slowly but truly mending. Brick by brick. Heart by heart.” The people knew that the task before them was bigger then they could comprehend and that it would require all hands to join together, yet they united as an act of worship.
In today’s scripture passage we do not know exactly how much of the rebuilding they have completed, but they at least have the Water Gate constructed, and that there is still more left to build. The gates were important in ancient communities for they were seen as a place of judgment, where it would be decided who would be allowed to enter into the city walls and who would be turned away. It was here, at this place of judgment that Nehemiah stood and read the law of God, the first five books of the Torah. It took him almost half a day to read it all, but when he was finished the people cried out with joy and repentance and celebrated with a feast. 
How do you rebuild when everything seems to be destroyed? What is the next step after someone has interceded for you and you have come to claim your new name as the beloved of God? You worship the God who has renamed you. In fact this passage lays out for us what our worship should look like to. And has some difficult truths for us. 
We are told that Ezra read the law before men and women who could hear and understand it. Because this reading took place outside of the temple everyone could participate in its hearing. Worship needs to go out to the people. We often think about serving people outside of the walls of the church building, but what would it look like to worship outside of the church building, too? To let our very presence as a worshipping body outside of the building be an invitation for people to join us in praising God. The second summer I was an intern at my home church, the pastor decided that we were going to try something new. When it was warm outside on Saturday evenings we were invited to bring lawn chairs and gather in front of the church building to worship. We would set up sound equipment and proclaim the word of God through song and preaching in the neighborhood. After one or two times of exiting the building to worship, people from the neighborhood started looking forward to our times of praise and worship. They would sit on their front porch and join us. We were evangelizing to them, simply by taking our worship outside of the church building. 
We are also told that all gathered at the Water gate  and that the prophet brought the Word of God before all people. That the ears of all people were attentive to the law. The people were unified while hearing the word of God and worshipping. It as not about who liked what passage of scripture, or how the scripture was interpreted. It wasn’t about what music they wanted to hear or how they prayed. It was about gathering together in the sight of God and being touched by the Word. It was about the community hearing and interpreting and being together.
Some of the most powerful moments I have had in worship were ones where I knew without a doubt that it was not about me, or my taste in music or favorite scripture passages. In fact they were ones that took place outside of my own language, in Russian, with an interpreter stating to us what was being said. By setting myself aside I was able to concentrate on God and the community that had gathered to worship the Holy One. I could be fully present and transformed by the Holy Spirit. Another such Holy worship moment took place in Israel, as we sang a familiar hymn as a class in an old church building. As our voices blended together and reverberated off of the stone walls, we were reminded, without a doubt that we were truly unified in Christ. Praise God for such moments when we set our own likes and dislikes aside for the Glory of God!
Notice what was being read to the people. The law. The covenant that God made the chosen people. In fact, to this day the law is still read in the synagogues, and when they finish reading it once, they start the cycle over again. The reason that the law is read with such consistency, and the reason Nehemiah chose to read it here is because it is a joyful thing. As Christians we don’t celebrate the law, mostly because of statements the apostle Paul makes about the law in the book of Romans. However, what we miss is that Paul is not pushing aside the law. Rather he is saying is that the moral law needs to be rejected and replaced with Christ. The type of law that makes a person righteous simply by following rules, instead of relying on grace. What Paul is not saying is to to throw out the natural law, or those laws that make it so we can live together in authentic community and care for each other. But Nehemiah is neither focusing on the moral or natural law in and of itself, but on the God who made covenant with the people and gave the law. Notice what the people did when they heard the reading of the law. The wept and repented. And after they repented they rejoiced. Rejoiced in the grace that God is extending to them and the relationship they have with a God who loves them so deeply. Rejoiced in the blessings that had been showered upon them in community and food. When is the last time you rejoiced in the law that God has given us and the covenantal relationship that upholds it? 
When we gather together in worship we remember and praise the God of the covenant who calls us to love our neighbor and God with our entire being. And we praise God together. It is not about private worship or celebrating what we do on our own, but rather God working through us. Nehemiah even instructed the people to do the work of God together in their celebrating, inviting others who were not present to the feast of rejoicing. Giving to those who did not have. Worship is communal and invitational. It invites us to be holy people, set apart for God, by God’s grace. But holiness is not divorced from celebrating, for we are sharing in the gifts of God together. 
But above all, Nehemiah reminds us in the reading of the Torah that worship is about God. We cannot rebuild our lives on the foundation of faith in a living God who extends us grace daily if we simply say things about God. If we simply uphold the characteristics that we like about God. Worship centers on reading the Word of the Living God, who still speaks to us. Who still moves around us. Who cannot be contained in the pages of a book, but is experienced in life. In worship, we get the chance to experience this Living God, so we can leave this place and continue to seek the Divine presence. Continue to notice God moving through us in the world. It is this living God who transforms hearts and lives. Coming to worship is like a weekly renewal celebration, as we grow in community and with God. 
Brothers and Sisters, our worship stands as a testament to what we believe in. The value we place on the Word of the Living God and gathering together in community. The value of setting ourselves and our own desires aside for the work of the Kingdom of God. It is in worship that hearts can be rebuilt, if we truly give ourselves over to God. It is here that God can slowly start to rebuild shattered hearts and faith, as we celebrate the grace and work of God together. It is here that we can forever be transformed as we repent, proclaim amen, and feast together. For the glory of God! Amen, amen, amen!

Sunday, January 20, 2013

Proclaim! - Is 62: 1-5


       When given the choice between needing to be vindicated, or saved from a difficult situation, or having things go smoothly, what would you choose? Many of us would probably choose to have things go well, not to be in the midst of difficult circumstances, not need to be saved. The Israelites understand the frustration of trying circumstances. They have been taken into captivity, lived enslaved there for many years, and now they have been freed. Finally the broken nation can start to hope again. Finally, they can feel like things are starting to look up and go well. Only it doesn’t last very long. They are now on their way to fulfill the daunting task that God has given them - to rebuild the city of Jerusalem and the temple. To make matters worse, they are facing conflict amongst themselves, between those who were taken into captivity and are returning to Jerusalem, and those who stayed in Jerusalem the entire time. The people are starting to feel just as hopeless as they were enslaved. 
Enter the prophet who could feel the despair and wavering patience of his people. The prophet starts to shout to God to vindicate Zion once again. To look with favor upon the mess that is Jerusalem. To bring salvation. This is not the first time the people have looked to the prophet to proclaim their need to God. To proclaim their discontent. In fact, they may just be sick of the prophet needing to proclaim into the midst of their seemingly unchanging circumstances - just when things start to go well they plummet again. But the prophet knows that he must stand between a defeated people and the God that can restore their faith and hope. 
The prophet knows better then to tell people that if they just hang on that things will be better. He knows that this is neither the time nor the place to offer trite platitudes to boost morale. Instead, he turns his attention to God and cries out for vindication. Cries out for salvation to truly come. He goes as far to demand that God intercedes in the situation. 
Brothers and sisters, how many times have we been in a situation like the Israelites? A time when we do not want someone to tell us that all will be well or that God has a purpose in what we are going through. How many times did we simply want someone to say that they knew what we were going through? The Bible is not only a book that offers good news in salvation, but a book that offers good news that others have went through what we were facing. Others understand our seeming hopelessness at times. The Bible allows us to sigh in relief and say, “someone truly understands.”
That is a message that needs to be just as clearly proclaimed as that of salvation. That even people from way back when the Bible was composed understand how we feel. Understand when we feel like God has abandoned us once again or that we don’t know up from down. Understand our broken dreams and shattered hopes. Because if we don’t acknowledge that times are tough, then we are simply continuing the illusion that all is well for Christians all the time, and people will not be able to hear another thing that we have to say, because we cannot identify with how they feel or meet them where they are at.
Do we believe that God offers hope in all circumstances? Certainly! Do we believe that God can redeem even our most difficult struggle? Yes, indeed! But if we don’t acknowledge the pain in hopelessness and bring our brokeness before God and instead jump straight to trying to make people see the bright side of what they are going through, we will push them away and our message will seem disingenuous. Sometimes we need to be the ones crying out to God in order to help others lament in order to teach others that it is okay to bring our brokeness to God. Sometimes we need to be the ones who simply sit with another person in their hurt instead of trying to make everything better right away. 
This past week in our 40 Days of Love Bible study, the accompanying video made a bold statement that we do not like to face others pain because it reminds us of our own brokeness. While the presenter was making this point in relationship to why we avoid being around people who are hurting, I would say that it is just as true when looked at through the lens of why we are so quick to try to make people feel better. We don’t want to face their brokeness. We would rather everyone be happy so we can pretend to be happy as well.
But this passage in Isaiah today tells us that we have the power to pray to God and say that things are not as they should be. That we can bring our unhappiness and brokeness to God and that nothing is outside the limits of our honest conversation with the one who created us. For it is only after we bring our truthful selves to the Lord, brokeness and all, that we can begin to heal and hear the good news. For after we present ourselves to the Lord a new name is proclaimed over us. Now a new name does not necessarily mean a change in our circumstances. Or that everything magically becomes fixed. Instead a new name means that we see ourselves in a new way, see our circumstances in a new light. We will see that God is not causing us harm, but is weeping over us. That we are not forsaken but delighted over. For our Christian hope comes not from the fact that everything goes well in our lives, but rather that we are the beloved of God instead of sinners. It is a change in our relationship to God, not our external circumstances. 
We are exiting a year that seemed to be filled with a lot of disappointments and heartaches on so many levels - personal, national, international. With Christmas and the New Year came hope that things would get better but for far too many as the new year settles in it is starting to look just as bleak again. What message do we proclaim into peoples darkness? Do we tell them that it is okay to bring their brokeness to God or do we simply smile and try to make them feel better in order to no longer face their pain? Do allow people to acknowledge their sorrow so they can eventually find the hope of a new name, a new relationship with God? For we do people a grave injustice if we do not let them present themselves and what they are feeling before God. 
We are surrounded by people who feel like the Israelite. You feel like they have no place to go. Who see their lives in ruins with broken hearts. Who don’t feel like they have any control in their lives and don’t know where to turn. The church across the street from my parents house had an interesting proclamation on their sign this week that speaks directly to those with shattered faith - it read “We bring the broken hearts to God, but God wants all the pieces.” Brothers and sisters, my hope and prayer is that we can be the people who proclaim a similar message. That God does not just want the good moments in our lives, God wants them all. That God walks with us through all of our moments - including the difficult trials where we fear God is absent. And that when we bring our true broken selves before God we are given the gift of a new name, an identity of belovedness. May we proclaim with our attitude and actions that God rejoices over us even when we are in the midst of despair. I hope that we bring the message that God delights over us by sitting with others when they feel abandoned. May we proclaim that God is with us in the midst of the difficulties, vindicating us often in unknown ways, in God’s perfect timing. May we go forth and proclaim, like the prophet, in the name of the Lord. Amen. 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Jesus' Baptism - Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22


One of my favorite songs about baptism is not a hymn, but a folk song featured in the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou. Song writer Alison Krauss captures the compelling nature of baptism as she sings, “O sinner, let’s go down. Let’s go down, come on down. O sinner, lets’s go down, down to the river to pray.” There is something about the nature and grace of God that compels us to be washed anew in life giving waters. Something that leads us to make a covenant with Christian community to support each other in our baptismal vows. 
But often this sacrament of the Church can become confusing when we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord Sunday. Why exactly did Jesus need to be baptized if he was sinless? Is the Lord’s baptism the same as our baptism? And why was Jesus baptized by John, who proclaims that he was not worthy to untie the throng of Christ’s sandals?
Each of the Gospels has a slightly different account of Jesus’ baptism, a different reason for its necessity. Luke tells us in today’s scripture passage that when all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. How often we overlook the statement that Jesus was baptized with other people. Here Jesus acted in solidarity with those who struggled daily with sin. Can you envision it? Christ standing in line with the broken people of the world waiting for his turn to be lead under the waters of repentance and brought back up into the world of new life. How uncomfortable does it make you to think about Christ amongst these people? But that is exactly where Christ was and where he can still be found today. Amongst the broken people in the world. Waiting to bring them new hope, salvation, new beginnings. 
Brothers and sisters, are we too standing in solidarity with the broken, sin-torn people of this world? There is a common saying that the Church is not a museum of saints but a hospital for sinners. Do we live like that? Solidarity does not mean that we go back to our life of sin, rather it means that we understand the turmoil of that life and want to stand in line with those who are seeking to start anew. Seeking Christ’s forgiveness. We understand. We’ve been there. We still go there, when we fall short of God’s glory and call on our lives. Do we stand with those who are seeking to transform their lives in the waters of baptism, or are we off to the side, judging them. Not welcoming them into the fold? Time and time again as a pastor I have people tell me that they aren’t good enough to come to church. Brothers and sisters if we are truly a hospital for sinners then we need to live like it. We need to confess our sins, instead of pretending that we are perfect and don’t have any. Because somewhere along the line people have started to associate the Church with the museum of saints. We’ve stopped standing in line with those seeking to be transformed, encouraging them to come into the waters. We’ve stopped remembering that we too are in need of Jesus’ grace.
Luke’s account of Jesus’ baptism also reminds us that baptism is coupled with prayer. When we baptize someone we covenant to uphold them in prayer and walk with them along their faith journey. Luke tells us that Jesus was praying after he had been baptized. Jesus was not only with those in need of God’s healing grace and love, standing with them, but then praying for us. Praying for his ministry. Praying to God. Christ reminds us that prayer is vital for our life as Christians. So vital that he would not face the next act of his public ministry, the temptations, without it. He was not choosing this baptism or ministry by his own authority, but by the leading and strength of God. And as he prayed the heavens were open and the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove descended upon him. We too must pray for the leading and strength of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We too must pray as we enter into whatever aspect of ministry God is calling us to. For with each of our baptisms comes a call on our lives to go into the world and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Triune God. Brothers and sisters are we coming daily to God in prayer asking for strength to live out our baptismal vows and whatever God has called us to? Are we praying for each other? Are we confessing our sins before God and praying for forgiveness? Are we knee-bent before the throne of grace?
As Jesus was praying and the Spirit descended, a voice came from heaven proclaiming, “You are my Son; the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” With this voice came the confirmation of Jesus’ ordination as the Messiah. This call will sustain Jesus through the rest of his ministry and will be his public identity even to his death. 
This past week I have been working on ordination paperwork. As part of my preparation I’ve been reading over my pasts papers in order to build upon them this year. In my call paper that I wrote two years ago I stated that my call to ordained ministry is clearly linked to my baptism. In fact, we are all, lay and clergy alike, have a call that comes at our baptism. A vocation to live a life for Christ wherever we may find ourselves. A call that we cannot fully live into apart from the body of Christ. For our call is clearly linked with our identity given at our baptism. Our identity as the Beloved of God. When we baptize people into the body of Christ, we do not use their family name. Instead we only use their first and middle names, signifying that their last name, their sir name, is that of the family of Christ. That of being the beloved. Yet, far too many people who come out of the waters of repentance do not act as if they are the beloved. Do not act as if they are claimed by the love of Christ into the family of God. Brothers and sisters, do you know in your heart that you are claimed as the Beloved of God and do you live into this claim daily? 
Jesus does not utter a word in Luke’s account of his baptism, yet the story has powerful implications for the Church today. Jesus stood in solidarity with those who are seeking the Messiah. Those who didn’t realize that he had already come. Those who didn’t understand who the Messiah would be or what type of salvation he would bring. Are we standing with those who need to know the love of Christ in our world today? Are we standing with those who don’t realize that Jesus has come or the powerful message of repentance he wants to bring into their lives? Do we pray for the people we are surrounded by? Pray that they will be lead to the life giving waters? Praying that once lead there they will fully live into their baptismal vows, calling, and identity as the beloved of God? Do we live lives that proclaim our own vows, calling, and belovedness?  Do we live as if our baptisms truly were a new beginning or have we forgotten what this sacrament truly means?
Kruass understands this need for solidarity in baptism, this claim of belovedness, this change of life. With each verse she pleads and prays for another group of people to join her in going down to the waters of baptism. Brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers. All sinners. All in need of the new and renewed community that Christ is offering. 
This morning we too have an opportunity to renew our covenant with Christ and reclaim our identity as the Beloved as we join together in Wesley’s Covenant Renewal service. Wesley understood that at times we, as the Church, loose our way and forget our identity, forget our calling. So each new calendar year a service is held for us to recommit ourselves to the teachings of Christ in conjunction with his baptism. Today let us renew ourselves as we remember our baptism in prayer and thanksgiving.