“Time with God: Partnership” Mark 11: 11-26 James 4:2 John 15:7

I was recently at a training meeting where I was struck by the words that presenter lifted up in prayer. “Lord, we thank you that you trust us to be partners with you in proclaiming your Kingdom.”

Have you ever taken time to really consider that we are partners with God in proclaiming the Kingdom of God? We some what skirt around that fact when we say things like ‘we are the hands and feet of Jesus’ and ‘the local Church is God’s tool in the world’, but the truth is, starting back with Adam and Eve, God invited humans to participate in the  Kingdom of God. Think of Adam, given the opportunity to name the animals and be a steward of the land. That was God entrusting unto Adam, and us as his descendants, something that was precious to God - creation, which had time and creativity poured into it and was pronounced to be “very good.”

Today we are also invited into partnership with God in some amazing ways. The first way we are a partner with God is through prayer. We are called to be a people who persist in prayer. Over the years I have been asked several times why we even bother praying if God already knows what we are going to say, but John and James both have something to say to us today about the power of prayer. John says if we abide in Christ then what we ask for in the power of Christ’s name will be done. James takes it a step further saying that we do not receive because we have not came to God in prayer and asked. 

Prayer, however, is not just about asking God for something and expecting it to happen. Prayer is about a living, breathing relationship with God. I love how author Klau Issler describes our different attitudes and approaches to prayer in his book Wasting Time with God. Issler says that too many Christians treat prayer like going to a restaurant. They look at a menu. They order what they want. And if it doesn’t come back exactly how we expected then we send it back. There is no relationship in this particular context. We don't know the people taking our order or the people making the food. We simply go to get what we want.

However, when we make food together there is a relationship. When I was in college I studied abroad in Australia. The college I attended had most students living on campus where you were required to have a meal plan. So when we got to our new school in Australia and realized that we were living in cottages with no meal plans it was a bit of a shock. But then we thrived. Some of our favorite things to make were tomato sauce, honey glazed fish and homemade pizzas. We didn’t have any recipes, so everything made was a little different each time. There was laughter in the kitchen. Stories were shared. And then we sat down around a table together and shared in what was created. Cooking was deeply rooted in relationship.

How would you describe your prayer life with God in this example? Are you creating something in the kitchen of life with God, sharing life together, or are you ordering off a menu and then are disappointed when it doesn’t meet your expectations? 

Prayer is meant to be rooted in relationship - a friendship with God. One where we not only talk, but where we also listen. When we have our eyes open and realize that sometimes the way that God chooses to answer our prayer doesn’t meet our expectations, but is actually even better. 

We are also invited to pray for those things that are burning in our spirits. When we pray Church, change happens. When we pray we are partners with God, praying God’s Kingdom into existence. We are listening for the voice and leading of our Savior, and then going where he sends us. 

Two beautiful examples of what can happen when we pray as partners with God. Bishop  Jane Allen Middleton, the former resident bishop of the Central Pennsylvania and Susquehanna Annual Conference used to pray like this. “Lord, I have a desire in my heart, if its from you let me increase in that desire, and if it is not from you, let that desire decrease.” Bishop Middleton used discernment and if that desire was confirmed she worked to make it happen for the glory of Jesus’s Kingdom. 

The Quaker time of is very different then ours. There isn’t a designated order of worship, scripture passage, or even a pastor to speak. Instead, followers of Jesus gather and sit in silence. If something is placed on the heart by the Spirit, anyone can rise and say it. After they are done, the silence continues. Sometimes people who aren’t used to this type of worship ask when the service is going to start, and the answer is when they leave to go and serve the world based off what they have heard for God. 

Which leads us to the second way we partner with God, by actually going and perhaps even more importantly, knowing why we go. The story in the Gospel of Mark of Jesus and fig tree is odd. Jesus walks by a fig tree that wasn’t producing fruit and cursed it. However, the time of year when this story took place, Spring, wasn’t fig season. What was Jesus trying to teach his disciples? 

The fig tree was thought to be a metaphor for teachings that weren’t bearing fruit. Teachings that were dying. To be clear, Jesus wasn’t against religious teachings or ritual, however, he didn’t want a misuse of those rituals and teachings that lead to death instead of life abundant or where we miss the point of ministry.

When we go out and proclaim the name of Jesus, it isn’t about getting people to come to worship or join this particular church. It is about folks coming to have a relationship with Jesus. At a previous church, I started a ministry whose sole focus was to bring the good news of Jesus to folks who may never come to a church, and it was difficult at times for folks to catch the vision that yes, we love our Church, but we love Jesus so much more. We want folks to come to that relationship with Jesus. If they come to us later, fantastic, if not, because there is a different church that better fits their needs, thats okay too, because we have been partners with Jesus in building up his Kingdom. 

Partnering with Jesus is about being concerned with the things that Jesus is concerned about - injustice, poverty, spiritual decay, and inequality. Partnering with Jesus is about being creative in the ways that we bring the message of Christ to those who may not come to us, come to the church building, first. And above all partnering with Jesus is about his Kingdom. 

When we pray and when we go, we are subjecting ourselves to God. We are asking that God lead us and guide our ways. We are humble that we were invited to be part of this task in the first place and are amazed that we have a place and role in proclaiming the Kingdom! Let us thank God for the gift of partnership and help usher in the Kingdom of God! Amen! Amen! Amen!

“Time with God: Apprentice” Hebrews 5:8 Hebrews 12: 10-11

We don’t talk very much in terms of apprenticeships any more. An apprentice is someone who is learning the skills of a particular trade. This is different then an intern who works in order to simply get work experience. An apprentice works directly with a master in the occupation they are called to, an intern can be the low person on the totem poll, running errands and perhaps spending little to no time with the master.

When you are called to be a pastor there are several different forms that apprenticeships take. During seminary you have a year long supervised ministry program where you work with a particular pastor in a particular place, getting a chance to hone your ministerial skills under their leadership. You also meet with a committee of lay people who are a source of encouragement and another group of students at the seminary who you debrief your experience with.

Then once you enter into the local church, the journey does not end. I am an ordained elder. In order to be ordained you have to at minimum work in the local church for two years, with a mentor you can ask questions to, a conference committee called the Board of Ordained Ministry helping to emulate your work, and meet with a group of others going through the ordination process to learn together. Some call this residency. Others call it probationary membership. Its a blessed and grueling time of learning from so many amazing ministers around you in order to help you be the best pastor for God’s Kingdom possible.

But the truth in apprenticeships aren’t just for pastors or craftsmen and women. Have you ever taken time to consider that we are all called to be apprentices as disciples of Jesus Christ. We are called to learn from the master, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, about how to connect the needs of those that Jesus deeply loves with the Kingdom of God.

If we are honest for a minute though, apprenticeships are not always fun. They often involve learning hard lessons. One of the first difficult things I remember learning during the apprentice phase of ministry is that I cannot be all things to all people. I remember the United Methodist liaison at my seminary saying to us “The first thing that I tel my congregations is that I’m going to disappoint them. I cannot be all things to all people.” I learned that early on as I balanced serving a church part time with being a full time student, including a ten week live in residency in chaplaincy training in Hershey. I could not meet everyone’s perceptions and needs. 

What are some of the hard lessons that we learn from Jesus? Well they make my hard lessons as as pastor look extremely easy. One of the things that Jesus teaches us is that as disciples we are going to suffer. Hear again the words of scripture from Hebrews 5 “Although he was a Son, he learned obedience through suffering” Suffering can be the end result of different things. The first place suffering can come from is sin. 

Think of the story of Joseph. Joseph was the most beloved son of his father Jacob and was shown favoritism, especially by receiving a coat that none of his siblings received. So his brothers kidnapped him and threw him into a ditch to die, before realizing that it would be more profitable to sell him into slavery. The brothers then returned to their father and told him that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Take a moment and think of where the sin was in that story. It abounded!

Where there is much sin, there is much suffering. Jospeh found himself as a slave to Potiphar, an important leader in Egypt. When Potiperh’s wife tried to suduce Joseph and he said no, she made up a tale that ended up in his imprisonment in jail. There however, things started to change. Joseph’s time of suffering became redeemed by God. He interpreted dreams for others in jail, which made him well known to the point where the Pharaoh of Egypt asked Joseph to interpret his dreams and by doing so, Joseph was able to help lead the nation into a time of prosperity, even when famine hit. 

When Joseph was eventually reunited with his brothers years later, he spoke these words, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve numerous people, as he is doing today.”

Part of our discipleship is realizing how sin and suffering are linked, but also to proclaim that God can redeem suffering for the glory of the Kingdom. Trials that we go through can help us get to know God better as we grow close to God and are more attuned to the voice of the Spirit. 

Two, apprenticeship teaches us the hard lessons of forgiveness. We have all been deeply hurt by other people during our time in life. When Jesus is teaching us about forgiveness, he is not doing so in a way that tells us to put a happy face on and pretend that everything is okay. Instead, the deep forgiveness of Christ, the forgiveness that he modeled for us on the cross, is releasing those people that hurt us into the care of God. And that is hard work. It is not something that comes naturally to us and therefore, is something that we need to learn. Human beings tend to respond to being hurt by other people with a slant towards revenge, not forgiveness. 

Three, discipleship teaches us to be obedient to God. The verses we read from Hebrews 12 today spoke of God discipling us when we go astray in order to bring obedience. But often we can misunderstand the role of discipline in the life of faith. A few weeks ago I was in Panera bread and overheard one women explain to another why God sometimes has to discipline us. She explained that when we have children we care about in our lives, we want the very best for them. We don’t want them to get hurt. So we try to discipline them in order to help them learn what will harm them from that which is safe. God sometimes disciplines us when we engage in sin that will harm us in hopes that we will cease that activity.

But God doesn’t want to discipline us for the sake of discipline alone. God wants us to choose to be obedient. God wants us to choose to love God voluntarily. God wants us to be obedient in order to remind us of our dependance upon God. God wants us to trust God alone.

Here’s the thing about apprenticeships. Yes, they are often required to enter into certain professions but we have a choice. We can choose to give our all, and follow the call on our life, by living as an apprentice, or we can walk away, saying that its too hard. My hope and prayer is that we freely and willingly accept being apprentices of Jesus. That we desire to learn from him how to live into the abundant life, even if it means that things will not always go our way. May we be known as people who are learning from the ultimate master and led by the Spirit. Amen. 

“Time with God: Faith” Hebrews 11: 6, 27 Hebrews 12: 1-3

One of my passions for the local church is spiritual formation - conversations about how we can grow in our faith journey. It is my belief that we are never done growing closer to God. I enjoy having conversations with people about how it is with their soul. For the next four weeks we are going to join together in a conversation about how it is with our souls and how we can continue to grow deeply in our relationships with God.

There is a Christian Band, Jonah 33, that has a powerful song “Faith Like That”. The chorus goes like this: “I want a faith like that. To see you pass by, or to see the dead rise. Oh I want a faith like that, whatever the cost, I’ll suffer the loss. Oh I, I want a faith like that.”

We talk a lot about faith in the church, but I’m not sure we all have the same starting place when using the word. For some of us faith in a personal belief in Jesus. For others its talking about amazing things that Jesus did long ago. For others its hoping for what will come. But I think these lyrics steer us perhaps in a different direction. Faith is confidence or trust. Its a belief in someone or something, that leads us to be loyal. Faith is that which we sink our roots down into. It defines who we are and effects how we live our lives. 

We all put our faith into someone or something - that which we build out lives upon. What are some of the things that people put their trust in? Health. Wealth. Family. While we may have faith in God as the people of God, that isn’t automatically true for the world around us. Many people outside of the church don’t outright attack Christian beliefs, they just don’t think they are for them. Or they think its something you eventually outgrow. 

Here’s the thing - some people do live their lives as if God doesn’t exist. But I want you to take a moment to imagine what life would truly be like if God didn't exist. God created everything. From the tiniest particles to the largest planet and everything in between. Until we start to grasp the fact that God created all we have, its hard to have faith in God.

I spend a lot of time reading obituaries. It’s simply part of the job. I read them each morning to see if people who are related to folks in the congregation have passed away so I can reach out to them. Have you ever noticed that obituaries touch on usually a mixture of three things. They always talk about relationships - who was important to this person, lists of names that represent family and friends. They also talk about things of interest to the deceased - organizations they belonged to and what their vocation was. But there are other things that rarely make it into obituaries, but I celebrate when they do - character and deeds. I want to know who this person was at a deep level. One of my favorite things to read was “so and so was a person of deep faith.” It makes my heart sing. I also love it when that sentence is followed by examples of how they lived out their faith in their daily lives- because friends that’s what matters most. 

Hebrews 11 is considered the hall of fame of faith. It tells the stories of countless folks from the Hebrew Scriptures who were champions for God, people like Abraham, Moses, Rahab, and so on. Whenever I read chapter 11 in Hebrews I see broken people who lived lives that pleased God. All the people listed weren’t perfect. In fact in many of their cases, scripture includes stories of how they screwed up along the way of serving God. But at the end of the day, they were still considered folks who pleased God because they had faith in God. 

At the beginning of this great list of saints we find the words “and without faith it is impossible to please God.” Friends, at the end of all our lives I want us to be people who the first thing family members think to put in our obituaries is that we were people of faith who tried to live a life pleasing to God. 

In Hebrews, chapter 12, the author goes on to tell us what a life of faith looks like. First, when we are part of a life of faith, we know that we don’t go through life alone. We are bing cheered on by the cloud of witnesses - the Saints who went on to glory before us -  who are cheering us on.

When you think about the Saints who taught you about faith who comes to mind? I think of Alberta - who for the entire time I knew her she was homebound either in a bed or a chair. Yet, every time I saw her she had a story about how God had been good to her and what God was revealing to her through scripture. I think of Cheryl, home on hospice as cancer claimed her life far too soon, who kept telling me that the only thing getting her through this time was her relationship with God who she was going home to be with. I think of Seymour, who fought a hard battle with heart disease, but knew that his heart was clean before his Lord. These are just some of the saints who touched me, brothers and sisters, who do you think about?

Pastor Theodore Wardlaw said, “memory is not just a recollection of the past, it is a way of preparing for the future.” When we think about these Saints from our lives and what they taught us about living a life of faith, we see how they also have encouraged us to carry their legacy into the future by how we live our lives.

Second, in order to live a life of faith, we need to get rid of that which is weighing us down and holding us back. Let’s be honest for a minute folks, there is still a lot of sin with in the church, is there not? Selfishness. Quarreling. Greed. Gossip. Just to name a few. Lord forgive us, for it is weighing us down in our walk with Jesus. When we care more about what the person sitting next to us in the pew thinks then what Jesus thinks, forgive us, we are being held back. When we care more about getting our way, then what honors and glorifies God with who we are and what we have, Jesus forgive us, for we are being weighed down. In our faith life, we need to shed what is unnecessary in order to stay the course. 

Third, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus, our high priest, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. The one who modeled for us what endurance looks like. How do we cultivate endurance in the faith? Through spiritual practice. Two I would like to suggest today are watching for God and fasting. When we watch for God we take time to notice what God is doing in our lives. Doing so helps us realize that we are not alone in our lives and that God is always with us. A great place to start is looking for those things that you would consider a coincidence at first glance and recognizing if the hand of God is present. 

Fasting allows us to intentionally set aside things - food, entertainment, etc. - in our lives in order to focus on God. Sometimes we can get distracted by other people and things in our lives that make us take our eyes off of Jesus and stray in our faith journey. Fasting helps us get our focus and priorities back in the right place as we move forward following God.

Friends, how is your faith walk going? Where are the places where you need to focus more on Jesus? What are the sins you need to shed that are weighing you down? How are the Saints encouraging you and cheering you on? May we all cry together “I want a faith like that. To see you pass by, or to see the dead rise. Oh I want a faith like that, whatever the cost, I’ll suffer the loss. Oh I, I want a faith like that.” Amen. 

Time with God: Faith Devo

August 6th, 2017

Time with God: Faith

A Brief Introduction:

During the month of August our weekly parish devotional is going to be a bit different. Instead of a daily scripture passage with reflection and questions, there will be one devotional with a spiritual practice you to engage for the entire week. As we focus on spending time with God, the hope and prayer is that these spiritual disciplines will lead us deeper in our relationship with the Holy One. 

Scripture: Hebrews 11:6 and Hebrews 12: 1-3

Read the scripture daily. Read it slowly. What is God bringing to your attention through this passage? 

Questions to consider: 

• What does the word faith mean to you?
• How have you grown in your faith in God?
• How would you describe the link between having faith and pleasing God? What does this look like in your own life? 
• Who are the people in your life who exemplify walking in faith? What can you emulate in them?
• What prepares you to walk in faith daily, for the long journey of life?

Spiritual Discipline. Fasting

Fasting – to give up something for a set period of time in order to concentrate more fully on God. This can be food (for a set period of time such as a meal or a day), TV, reading, etc. 

Scripture: "When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show others they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to others that you are fasting, but only to your Father, who is unseen; and your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:16-18)

Spiritual Practice: 

• Abstain from food, drink, shopping, desserts, media, etc for a set period of time one day a week. During this period of time focus on God.