A View From The Earth

A Humpty Dumpty Advent Sermon

2011-12-13T06:09:00.000-08:00

This is the sermon I gave at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on December 11, 2011.

Readings:

John 1:6-8, 19-28
1 Thessalonians 5:16-24Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalms 126

We'veall heard the old familiar nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty sat on awall. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall. All the Kings horses and allthe kings men. Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. You areprobably thinking, where in the heck is he going with this, so pleasebear with me.

HumptyDumpty was this egg who lived in a kingdom. He was cheerful andchipper sitting high up waiting on a wall. Never had the fear ofbeing poached, boiled, or fried. Never had the concern of becoming anomelet or a meringue. Humpty Dumpty lived a good life. Sitting highup, he was able to look down at the townsfolk as they went by. Neverhad a care or a concern. But one day as he sat up on top of his wall,something happened. Now the story doesn’t breakdown what it was. Perhaps he had an argument with his wife. Maybe she became angry andtried to scramble him. Perhaps he had upset his neighbor and they hadtheir boys go and attempt to crack him up. Maybe he had just receiveda bill that was so astronomical that it caused him to split his yolk.Maybe he found out his daughter was pregnant and became so angry hepopped, like an over boiled egg. Maybe he lost his job and it causedhim to tumble. Maybe his son got sick and it broke him up. Maybe hegot cracked up because he was strung out on crack. I don’t know, Iwasn’t there. But Humpty Dumpty fell down and he broke so the kingof the town was called to come and try to put this egg’s life backtogether. Now we have all dropped an egg. We have each seen how itsplatters and shatters. Imagine the King and his men’s attitudewhen they saw this mess before them. A shell in millions of pieces.Egg white mixture possibly even beginning to sizzle on the hotpavement. The yolk speckled with gravel and soot. Humpty Dumptydipped, tripped, and fell down to go splat! The king and his footmengave up and left Humpty Dumpty in a heap. What in the world does thishave to do with anything?

Well,Humpty was waiting around just like we do during Advent. We wait andprepare for the birth of Jesus at Christmas. But just because we arewaiting doesn't mean that the rest of the world stops. Things happen,and sometimes, they aren't good things, as in Humpty Dumpty's case.

Thelocal yokels, the king and his men, couldn't put Humpty togetheragain. But we as a congregation can help, by supporting one anotherduring our time of waiting, when those little cracks appear along theedges.

Butlet's look at the story again. Perhaps Humpty was a reptile egg.Perhaps it was a baby turtle, and the cracking was a necessary partof the process. In that case, the King's men wouldn't have been ableto put Humpty together again, but they wouldn't have wanted to. Humpty, though the act of becoming cracked and broken, becamesomething new. Something that represented new life. In fact, thosecracks may have been the signal that something new was coming. Inthat case, we, as a congregation, can gently help the people as theymove and grow, encouraging and being there as they transform intosomething new. The cracks are normal—what we do when they appearis our measure of Spreading the Kingdom of God.

Paultells us today to do a number of things including rejoice, pray, andgive thanks. Those are things that we do every week at Church duringour Prayers of the People and during Eucharist. We need to rememberthat living our lives in the fashion that Paul describes will bringus closer to God and help us in our waiting.

Inthe Gospel, John the Baptist came as a witness to the light, to bethe precursor to Jesus. John didn't simply wait though, he had anactive ministry in helping people to repent. Now we might not be allcalled to a ministry like that of John the Baptist. But we all arecalled to ministry, helping out those in need, and that is somethingwe can do during advent and all throughout the year.

So,I pray for all of us to be reminded that we shouldn't just waitduring advent or at any time of the year, we should help others whenthey have a Humpty Dumpty moment and that they will help us when the cracks appear. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the HolySpirit. Amen.

College Football - Week 4

2011-09-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

This week is a bye week for the Iowa State Cyclone football team.

I had a couple of fumbles in last weeks predictions. I had Oklahoma losing but they won and Iowa losing but they also won. So for the year I'm 10/12 which is 83%, a B grade, so I could improve.

My top team, Oklahoma, beat a very good Florida State team by 10 last week, this week they start conference play with Missouri. I believe that it will be a good game but in the end I have the Sooners winning by a couple touchdowns.

My bottom ranked team, the San Jose State Spartans, lost another one last week to Nevada but by a surprisingly small margin of 4 points. This week they face New Mexico State at home, this is a game that I think they can win, but it will be a squeaker, the Spartans by a field goal.

Iowa beat a good Pittsburgh team in the fourth quarter last week. They came back and beat the Panthers by 4 points. Next up for the Hawkeyes is Louisiana - Monroe of the Sun Belt Conference. The Hawkeyes should have no problem with this team. Iowa wins by four touchdowns.

The Iowa State Cyclones beat Connecticut by 4 points in a come from behind win. This is becoming familiar with this Cyclone team. Iowa State has a bye week this week, they will need it to get ready for Big XII action, starting with an improved Texas team.

Until next week, keep the grill warm at the tailgate!

College Football - Week 3

2011-09-16T09:22:00.000-07:00

The Iowa State Cyclones meet the University of Connecticut Huskies on Friday night.

There were some surprises that happened in the college football landscape in Week 2. But for the teams I mentioned last week, my predicted winners won and the predicted loser lost. So I was at a 100% again. But for the spreads I did ok but wasn't spot on. My top ranked team, Oklahoma had a bye week so that was easy on me. The bottom feeder, San Jose State, lost by only 10, where I had a loss by multiple touchdowns. I missed that spread by a bit. But for the BIG GAME, the Iowa State Cyclones hosting the Iowa Hawkeyes, I predicted a win by two from the Cyclones. As it turned out it was decided in the third overtime, Iowa State beat Iowa by three points. No matter who won, it was one of the most enjoyable games that I've attended in a long time. But that chapter has closed and it is time to move on to the upcoming weekend.

The Oklahoma Sooners travel to Florida State on Saturday. This is the marquee game this weekend. I believe that this will be a very tough game and a very close game. Since they are playing on the Florida State Seminoles home turf, I think that the Sooners will walk away with a loss by around a field goal.

The San Jose State Spartans host WAC foe Nevada. The Nevada Wolfpack has started out 0-1, but I believe that they should be able to handle the Spartans with no problem. The Wolfpack will win over the Spartans by a 4+ TD margin.

The Iowa Hawkeyes host Big East power Pittsburgh. The Hawkeyes have a lot of questions on both sides of the ball and I'm sure that the Pittsburgh Panthers will be ready to play. So I believe that it will be a close game but the Panthers will beat the Hawkeyes by less than a touchdown.

Finally, the undefeated Iowa State Cyclones travel to Connecticut to face the UConn Huskies on Friday night. This nationally televised game is very important to both teams. The Cyclones are overall playing better than the Huskies so my prediction is that Iowa State will win but by another close margin of less than a touchdown.

College Football - Week 2

2011-09-09T07:42:00.000-07:00

The New CyHawk Trophy that won't be used. (Anyone need a doorstop?)

The second week of college football is upon us and here is how my predictions panned out for last week. Oklahoma was to win by 4+ touchdowns and won by 33 points. San Jose State was to lose by 4+ touchdowns and lost by 54 points. Iowa was to win by 4+ touchdowns and won by 27 points. Iowa State was to win by 3+ touchdowns and won by 1 point. So I got all of the winners and losers correct but only got the spread right on half of them. Maybe I can improve on that...

Anyway this week in my rankings I have Oklahoma retaining their top status. But this week is a bye week for the Sooners so they will have to watch any football on the television.

San Jose State retained their bottom ranking and this week they play UCLA which isn't all that great either but I believe that the Spartans are so bad that they again lose by 4+ touchdowns.

Saturday is the "BIG GAME" for the State of Iowa. The University of Iowa Hawkeyes will square off with the Iowa State University Cyclones in Ames. The last couple of years have been all Hawkeyes but even with the scare that Northern Iowa gave the Cyclones last week, I believe that Iowa State is improving with head coach Paul Rhoads. Since the Cyclones play at home, I will be a 'homer' and predict that Iowa State wins by 2 points, 30-28. Hopefully I will be correct and watch the Cyclones keep whatever they have for a trophy this year.

College Football - Week 1

2011-09-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

Another college football season has rolled around again. And again I will offer my measly rankings and prognostications on my top ranked university, bottom ranked university, and the local teams at Iowa and, of course, my beloved Iowa State Cyclones.

For the first week, my top ranked team is Oklahoma. The Sooners were very strong last year and it looks like they could be completely unstoppable this year. Oklahoma plays Tulsa on Saturday and I think that the Sooners will roll, winning by 4+ touchdowns.

On the other end is my bottom ranked team, which is San Jose State. The Spartans were rather hapless last year with only one win. I'm not seeing all that much improvement for them this year. San Jose State plays Stanford on Saturday and I expect that the Spartans will lose by a margin of over 4+ touchdowns.

Iowa hosts Tennessee Tech on Saturday and the Hawkeyes should have an easy time of it with a win of 4+ touchdowns.

Iowa State hosts intrastate rival Northern Iowa on Saturday. The Cyclones should win this hands down but Northern Iowa will have some tricks up their sleeve. When the dust settles, the Cyclones should have a win by a 3 touchdown margin. I know I will be in Ames to cheer Iowa State onto victory.

I will report back next week to see how my predictions turned out.

Watching out for those gray days...

2011-04-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

Today starts the third week of my official permanent layoff from my employer. It has taken me a couple of weeks to really come to terms with it and what it means to me.

At first I was really upset, angry even, about the dysfunctional leadership at the company. My employment was not ended by my manager but by the CEO, COO, & CFO of the company. The only thing I can think of about why I was terminated was that I have a tendency to ask questions and some of those questions are hard ones, especially about finances of the company and why certain things were happening within the company.

After the anger episode I went on to what seems like my trusty companion of depression. My mood became gray, a lot like the days have been of late. Feeling like I was starting to slip into the clutches of depression, I've decided to fight. Not fight my former employer because I wasn't really happy at my job, but to fight the depression and see what is good about this change. I've sent out many resumes but haven't gotten much in return.

Then last week, I heard about an opportunity through my sister for a part time position in the real estate/banking industry. It may not pay as much as I've gotten in the past but it does provide flexibility in the schedule. That flexibility will be crucial as I look to start taking seminary classes and do more in ministry as I slowly plod towards priesthood. Also, it appears that my Mulefoot pork business is finally starting to take off. So I will be able to get some income from my hogs instead of having a bunch of expensive pets.

I am still on the watch for those gray days, but here and there, a sliver of sunshine is starting to break through.

And that feels wonderful!

Temptations

2011-03-14T08:25:00.001-07:00

The temptations of Jesus.

This is the sermon I gave the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on March 13, 2011.

Readings:

Matthew 4:1-11
Romans 5:12-19
Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7
Psalms 32

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

We have entered Lent, it is a time that is set aside for self examination, repentance, reconciliation and restoration. And on this first Sunday of Lent, we hear the readings where Jesus is tempted, Adam and Eve are tempted and sin, and Paul tells the Romans that sin is death. It is a good thing that the Psalm tells us that we can be forgiven of our sins, otherwise this could be a real downer.

But, I'm going to focus today on Jesus and the temptations that he faced and what he did about them.

If a commercial on the television is to be believed then temptation truly comes in the form of cake or chocolate or chocolate cake, but of course temptation comes in many shapes and sizes, such as the story of Billy.

Billy woke up one Monday morning particularly tempted to stay at home because he was feeling quite sick, fed up and nervous about going off to school and so he told his mother about it. She was having none of it.

“But Mom,” said Billy. “I hate school. Lots of people can’t stand me. Most of the children call me names. Most of the teachers can’t stand the sight of me. I can’t concentrate on anything. No one wants to sit near me at lunch time, people walk off if they see me coming, and there have even been graffiti drawings about me. Mom, I am not going to school anymore.”

“But Billy, you have to, you’re the principal.”

Billy was sorely tempted to lie and to avoid his responsibilities, and he was giving in to the temptation. He was removing the chocolate from its wrapper, and falling into sin.

Let’s be clear. Temptation is not sin. So if temptation is not sin, then what is it? Temptation is pressure to give in to influences that lead away from God and into sin. Temptation is a doorway and then a bridge into sin if we cross it.

While I was thinking about today's Gospel, I thought through again all the questions that have been raised for generations.

Was this temptation experience a literal event in the life of Jesus or are we supposed to see it as a parable of sorts?

Was it partly that Jesus was hallucinating after 40 days without food?

Is Jesus deliberately being presented in these stories as an archetype for the people of Israel, who were themselves tempted in the wilderness for 40 years?

Are the forms of the temptations meant to reflect the temptations that were given to Israel or perhaps even to Adam and Eve?

These and other similar questions are the ones we tend to get caught up in when we ponder this text. But then it occurred to me that by getting caught up in all these esoteric questions, we run the real risk of overlooking what is surely the most fundamental thrust of the whole passage: namely, that Jesus was tempted!

Whatever happened out there in the wilderness, and however we understand the actual nature of the experience, this is, I think, the one thing that the Gospel writers wanted to make abundantly clear, that Jesus was tempted, and I don’t think we want to underestimate the significance of this.

We struggle here on planet earth. We struggle with greed, with lust, with the desire to get ahead or at least keep up with the idiots living next door. We covet our neighbor’s car and their bank account, and quite possibly their spouse and their ox and their ass as well, and I think we generally assume that God is somehow above all of this and yet we’re told here quite clearly, Jesus was tempted too!

Now you’re probably thinking, “well, I don’t think He was tempted with exactly the same things that tempt me”, but I do think that the temptations we are presented with are supposed to be sort of generic, that within these three temptations, all the temptations that are common to us are covered.

Jesus is tempted to satisfy the ‘lusts of the flesh’, even be it his basic physical hunger, as he is tempted to satisfy that all too human lust for power.

These two temptations of Jesus: that He satisfy his hunger with bread and that He take authority over all the kingdoms of the world; coincide rather neatly with the two most prominent psychological theories of human motivation.

Sigmund Freud said that all our actions are determined by ‘The Pleasure Principle’; by our desire to pursue pleasure and run away from pain, and Jesus’ rejection of this first temptation is a rejection of a life determined by the pleasure principle.

Similarly, Jesus’ rejection of worldly authority is a rejection of a life that is driven by the lust for power and significance, which some psychologists have suggested is the basic motivational factor behind all human behavior.

By refusing to become either a consumer or a politician, Jesus defied these two basic human motivational principles. His life was not going to be determined by the pursuit of either pleasure or power.

The third temptation of course, where Jesus is tempted to throw Himself off the temple and let God take care of Him, is a little harder to make sense of in terms of these basic theories of human motivation, but it does strike me that if it’s a temptation to let go of your responsibilities and let God take care of everything, it does tap into something very basically human.

In my forty plus years, I've noticed that there are some people who don't want responsibilities, who want to run away from their problems instead of dealing with them. They want others to take care of them so they can do what they please without consequences. There is a temptation sometimes to do this, which can lead into feelings of guilt, not guilt because they’ve actually ran away from their problems, but guilt because they feel tempted. But hang on: Jesus was tempted with the same idea – to give up personal responsibility.

“Thus he had to become like his brothers in every way,” says the writer to the Hebrews, “so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Does that sound like Jesus to you?

We know Jesus suffered. We know He suffered on the cross; that he suffered physically and perhaps even at some spiritual level when he took on the sins of the world, but according to the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, and according this story that comes up in the Gospels, He also struggled with the same basic human drives with which we all struggle.

This is important, I think, and comes to the very heart of our understanding of the incarnation of God in Jesus. In Jesus we not only see God, but we also see ourselves. And I don’t only mean ourselves as we could be, can be, and should be. I mean that we see ourselves in all our human weakness too.

To quote the from the letter to the Hebrews again: "Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are.”

The affirmation of faith here is that there is no struggle that we go through and no weakness that we experience that Jesus does not sympathize with and understand, which is what makes Jesus a much better Savior than you or I would be!

This, I believe, is the very meaning of the Incarnation of God in Jesus. It means that we not only see God becoming human in Jesus, but also that in Jesus we see something of our humanity lifted up into God. And thus we find in God someone who feels what we feel and who sympathizes with us in our struggles, even when no one else can sympathize with us in those struggles.

Jesus is tempted in the wilderness. He knows what it is like to feel pain and want and overwhelming passion and temptation. He goes there with us and he struggles with us and he suffers every kind of temptation known to humanity, and yet; He overcomes, which means that there is hope for us too!

Temptation isn't something that just happens to us once in our life. That doorway of temptation will always be there, with the bridge to sin just beyond. It is like a combination of a long distance race that has a round of boxing every once in a while. We won't win all the battles, but we know that with Jesus in our corner, sympathizing with us in our weakness, comforting us when we fail, and strengthening us to persevere, that we will still be on our feet when the final bell sounds.

And then we can say, 'I have fought the good fight. I have run the race. I have kept the faith.'

Amen.

Working together as servants

2011-02-20T11:43:00.000-08:00

A stained glass of St. Paul.
He had to keep reminding the Church in Corinth to stay on the correct path.

This is the sermon I gave the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on February 13, 2011.

1 Corinthians 3:1-9

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

The Corinthians self-image was of a spiritually mature congregation, endowed with all the spiritual gifts they needed, well taught and self-sufficient. In fact they were quite similar to some churches today. They thought their learning and their experience of the gifts of God made them better than others. But as Paul looks at them he says Mature? I think not! Spiritual? No! Not spiritual.

You could say they’re suffering from what you might call an adolescence syndrome. They think they’re mature, and in some respects they are, but in other respects they’re still acting like children. What they don’t realize is that mere lapse of time doesn’t bring maturity whether in the secular or the Christian world. Maturity has more to it than just age or experience or education. It has to do with an attitude to life, with an ability to deal with the real world, to accept the limitations of life, the variety of gifts that people have. And that’s how he knows that they’re not yet mature as Christians.

There’s quarreling and jealousy among them. How can they say they’re spiritually mature if they show that sort of worldly immaturity? Rather than being directed by love for one another they’re driven by competitiveness. They’re constantly comparing one with another to see who’s the best, who’s the smartest, who’s got the right answers, or the best pedigree.

And of course the major issue in this divisiveness is the issue of leadership. They each have their favorite spiritual leader that they place on a pedestal. It’s amazing how little we’ve changed isn’t it? They may not have had TV or the mass media that we have today, but they still had their favorite stars. So what’s wrong with them having their favorite spiritual leader? Why is this a sign of immaturity?

The problem is that this view of leadership comes from the world, not from God.

The world’s view of leadership is that the leader is the one who gives directions, who sets the agenda, who determines what’s important and what’s not. He or she is the most important person in the organization. They’re the ones to be emulated. That’s why big companies pay their CEOs million dollar pay packages. Because without them their company will flounder. And of course that’s why eyebrows are raised when those corporate executives still get paid even if their company does flounder. But that’s another discussion.

But this isn’t big business. This is the church we’re talking about, and the criteria are different. Mind you, we need to be careful here. We’ll see later that he isn’t saying we don’t need leaders, or that the apostles or the preachers of the gospel don’t have a place in setting the direction of the church. But the problem he’s addressing here is the status that these leaders are being given that seems to set them above even Jesus Christ.

So he asks what is Paul, what is Apollos? Not who, notice, but what? You see, this isn’t about personalities, it’s about function, gifting. What are they there for? Well, in the Christian economy they’re there as servants. In fact he uses a metaphor from everyday life to illustrate what he’s saying.

Paul says, one plants another waters. So which is the one that matters most? Well, neither. What matters is that God gives the growth.

Will the plant grow if it isn’t planted? No. Will it grow if no-one waters it? No. What if the waterer waters a different piece of soil and ignores the bit where the seeds are? The seed won’t grow then either. Both are vital tasks. Neither is more important than the other. They are in fact fellow servants of the one God. Equal in importance and value.

Look around you today. What do you see? I hope you can see not just an odd bunch of people (or maybe a bunch of odd people) but a team of workers called by God to work together to grow his church.

You see, we’re all important members of God’s workforce. There are no part-time Christians in the Church; at least there shouldn’t be. Some of us are the ones who plant the seed of the gospel, through our words or our actions. Some are those who make the last connection for someone when they finally take the step of faith in Jesus Christ. Others water the seed until it comes to fruition or nurture the plant after it’s sprung into life through our encouragement. But without all of those tasks being accomplished by you and me the plant won’t thrive. In fact it could whither and die.

But notice that the one who serves is not dismissed. This isn’t saying they don’t matter. God uses this servant leadership to do his work, to build his church. Leaders matter, but only ever as servants of God, never as gurus or figureheads.

So there’s a line we need to walk between raising up our leaders to a place above the community and merging them into it to the point of insignificance. All the time remembering that we’re each fellow workers for God, serving together on God’s project, the Church.

So who do you belong to? Not Paul or Apollos, not the Episcopal Church. In fact they all belong to you, because you belong to Christ, and Christ belongs to God. Here is true wisdom. If you’re on God’s side it doesn’t matter who else is on your side or not. We are all working together to plant the seeds, water the plants and then after God gives the growth, help in the harvest.

So lets work together as servants, so as to build up the church in unity according to God’s wisdom, not human wisdom.

Let us pray,

Dear God, we may plant the seed of your faith, but it is you, God, that makes that plant, your Church, to grow. May we be careful tenders of the Church, so that your will on Earth be done. In the name of the Father, the Creator, the Son, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The Berlin Wall, Martin Luther King Jr., The Field of Dreams, and Jesus

2011-02-20T08:44:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King Jr.

This is the sermon I gave the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on January 16, 2011.

John 1:29-1:41

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer.

In 1961, one of the abiding symbols of the Cold War and Communism went up between East and West Germany. On November 9, 1989, that symbol came down. I remember watching TV news reports as people celebrated on top of the wall and how they took sledgehammers to break the wall down by themselves. I also remember reading an article about the fall of the Berlin Wall written by a World Methodist Council representative, it quoted a sign that the author saw the day after the wall came down, it read, 'Not the bear, not the lion, not the tiger, but the Lamb; the Lamb wins!

The lamb is usually a sign of gentleness and timidity, prone to disaster from many hazards. But for Christians, the lamb is a sign of victory. In today’s lesson, John the Baptist attaches the title “Lamb of God” to Jesus. While all of the gospels record the baptism of Jesus by John, each does so in a different way.

On the day after Jesus was baptized, John the Baptist saw Jesus walking toward him and exclaims that Jesus is the Lamb of God. While the expression Lamb of God has passed into regular Christian usage, it is not at all clear what it means exactly. This phrase only appears in this chapter of the Gospel of John.

St. Jerome, the great 4^thcentury scholar, translated Scriptures into Latin (Vulgate) from their original tongues. Near the end of his life, Jerome encountered Jesus. The old saint and scholar gazed at Jesus for a moment and then asked: "Lord, what do you want from me?" Jesus said nothing, and continued to look lovingly on his faithful servant. This silence greatly disturbed Jerome. "Lord," Jerome insisted, "what do you want of me? My writings are all yours, my mind and my gift for languages are all yours, my piety and prayer life - they are all yours." "Jerome," Jesus said, "I already have all these things. I want what you have kept from me. Give me your sin."

Giving God our sin can be the hardest part of the Christian faith. It means that we have to admit that even our best efforts fall short of God’s righteousness. John the Baptist understood at some level that the Lamb of God would be sacrificed for the sin of the world. Perhaps John the Baptist is referring to the lamb of the Jewish sin offering. The Passover lamb is not a sin offering, but this is another possibility for interpretation. Possibly the Lamb of God of John the Baptist should be understood by the Church that lives after Christ’s resurrection as the conquering lamb of the Book of Revelation. Or is He the gentle lamb led off to slaughter in the prophecies of Jeremiah (11:19)? There are so many possibilities.

John the Baptist testifies that he saw the Spirit of God descend from heaven like a dove and come to rest on Jesus. John reiterates that before this happened he did not know that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Now he understands that it is Jesus that he has been preparing the world to receive. Two of John's disciples listen, turn, and follow Jesus.

When Andrew and friends asked Jesus where he was staying Jesus replied, “Come and see.” They stayed with him for the whole day, and at it turned out, they stayed with Him the rest of their lives. The very definition of a disciple is one who stays with Jesus wherever that stay may be.

On the third day of this story, John sees Jesus once more, and he again identifies Jesus as the Lamb of God. This intrigues his followers. What could John mean? Someone versed in the Old Testament might recall the lamb that God provided when Abraham and Isaac went up on the Mount of Moriah (Gen. 22). Some see the Lamb of God as a subtle reference to the suffering servant that we find in Isaiah’s prophecies. Maybe Lamb of God is meant to signify the horned ram that leads a flock of sheep.

The truth is that there are so many possibilities, but what is clear is that the Lamb of God is the Messiah sent by God to bring judgement to the wicked and deliverance to the righteous. As we were last week, again we are at the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry. In today’s lesson, John the Baptist is pointing his followers toward Jesus. Two of them are curious enough that they begin to follow Jesus and Jesus notices them and asks them a question. This is the first question that Jesus asks in the Gospel of John and it is a good one. It still has relevance. "What are you seeking?"

It is quite possible that they, like many of us, didn’t know what they wanted or what they were looking for. What is it that any of us seek and find in Jesus? Perhaps there is a vague sense in us that we want what most people want: a comfortable lifestyle, good health, and maybe children who are successful. We want security for our golden years and to have some fun along the way. And hopefully, along that same way we can be of help to others that we meet.

Maybe we want nothing at all. I recall one of the scenes in Field of Dreams when Iowa farmer Ray Kinsella goes to Fenway Park with reclusive author Terrence Mann. Kinsella asks Mann, “What do you want?” To which, Mann answers, “I just want to be left alone.” Kinsella points to a concession stand and explains that he was asking whether or not Mann wanted any food or drink.

Maybe you feel like Terrence Mann; you just want to be left alone. The problem for the Christian is that Jesus doesn’t just leave us alone. When we are first intrigued by Him, he beckons us further with a simple invitation, “Come and see.” When we have chosen to be His follower, He sends us into places and situations that we never would have chosen for ourselves. Chances are, for most of us, we’re not going to be staying at a fabulous hotel when we are on the road with Jesus.

In April of 1963, the Rev. Martin Luther King was invited to stay in a place that was not of his choosing. King was in Birmingham, Alabama for a series of civil rights protests. The police commissioner “Bull” Connor had King arrested on Good Friday along with 54 other marchers for “parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing. King was parked in the Birmingham Jail where he was singled out for isolation and denied the chance to make phone calls or the legal right to talk to his lawyers.

He had no mattress or linen, and ended up sleeping on metal slats. Over the Easter weekend, in solitary confinement, down in what was called “the hole,” Martin Luther King was staying with Jesus. It was while he was locked up that King penned one of the most significant Christian documents of the civil rights movement. Surprisingly, his “Letter from the Birmingham Jail” was not addressed to abusive police officers or racist politicians, but to a group of white, liberal clergymen who were urging people to withdraw from the demonstrations which they called “unwise and untimely.”

King responded strongly to their criticism and rebuked them by saying “we must use time creatively and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” He pointed out that “it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging darts of segregation to say, “Wait.” His letter was a stirring condemnation of those who would do nothing in the face of so much injustice directed at blacks.

When Jesus invites us to “Come and See,” He is welcoming us into a life that is abundant with meaning and purpose, but He is not necessarily inviting us into a life free from conflict or turmoil. Who is this Jesus? One of the hallmarks of our day is the proliferation of alternative views of Jesus. Listen to what Andrew says about Him:

One of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon and said to him, "We have found the Messiah.”

Andrew understands John’s calling of Jesus to be the Lamb of God as a synonym for the Messiah. When we come to understand that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ, sent from God, it doesn’t matter where He sends us or what we find in the places where He sends us. Back in 1963, who was really staying with Jesus? Was it the white moderate who was devoted to law and order, or the black radical who used non-violent means to push for justice? Was it the majority who preferred a negative peace based on the forceful control of tensions? Or was it the minority who worked for a positive peace marked by the presence of justice?

Whether it is the Berlin Wall or the Birmingham Jail, wherever Jesus takes us we have nothing to worry about. He may take us to a natural disaster like the recent floods, or to an AIDS hospice. He might lead us to be a part of a demonstration or a mission trip. He may send us to a classroom, a community, a neighbor’s house or a hospital. What matters most is that we go at the direction of Jesus and stay with Him.

You see, the lamb that we follow is the Lamb of God. He is the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of the Living God. His is the one who calls us to Himself, and the one whose presence transforms our lives. Go with Him and stay with Him. Jesus bids all who encounter Him, “Come and See.”

Let us pray.

Most loving Father, we give thanks for your Son, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world. Set us free from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whose Name we pray. Amen.

Prank on a Belgian call center (with captions in English)

2011-01-28T08:19:00.000-08:00

This is for all my Belgian friends...

Going to Egypt

2011-01-03T20:25:00.000-08:00

Joseph taking Mary and Jesus to Egypt

This is the sermon I gave at Morning Prayer at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on January 2, 2011.

Scripture: Matthew 2:13-15,19-23

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my rock, and my redeemer. Amen.

Sometimes,we take the long way home, just to enjoy the scenery and the companionship. Christmas is about a lot of things, but it is at least about getting back home. We sing about it: “I’ll be home for Christmas, if only in my dreams.

And “Over the river and through the woods.”

Over the river and through the woods,

To grandmother’s house we go;

The horse knows the way to follow the sleigh

Through the white and drifting snow

When I was young, in my mind's eye, I imagined what the stable where Jesus was born was like. It was a lot like the barn that we had. During the chill of wintertime, it was a warm place where the milk cows stayed. It was a nice, warm, steamy place with the earthy smells of the cows. So I thought I knew what a stable was like because I knew what a barn was like. I knew how warm it felt to lean against a cow. I knew what it felt like to lay on a pile of hay or straw. I had seen donkeys and sheep. It was not hard to picture Jesus’ birth place as being very like our farm on a bright, snowy, December night. It was a place of safety, where, in my child eyes, no one would want to leave.

Which brings us to this first trip of the holy family. Of all the dreams of Christmas, this one is the strangest even if it makes common sense. Joseph went to bed with his conversations with the Wise Men on his mind. What should he do? He was terrorized, for that was the way the Puppet King Herod ruled the land on behalf of Rome. Herod maintained control by a reign of terror. He had his own male children killed because he feared they might grow up and steal the throne from him by leading a rebellion. He feared Rome. He feared his own people and his own children. It was said of Herod, better to be his swine than to be his sons.

In the night, God spoke to Joseph’s mind in a dream. An angel said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him. ”

To Egypt? Why such a long way? The recent history of the Mideast tells us why. During the last century there have been large movements of people across the Mideast borders of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, Amenia, Palestine, Iraq and Iran as people attempt to escape civil war. Some 1400 years before Jesus was born, the Hebrew people immigrated from Egypt, not just once, but in waves over decades. They wandered in the desert of Sinai before arriving at what is modern day Palestine. Similarly, they had migrated from Ur to Palestine then to Egypt centuries before the Exodus from Egypt. The mass movement of people through the Mideast and frrequent wars in that area has occurred throughout recorded history.

Why would the angel say “Go to Egypt?”. Why not? Though it would take weeks, it was the nearest state, and the way was on a well-marked international trade route.

The long journey is typical of our spiritual life. It is the far country, the place outside the gate, the burning bush in the desert we must turn aside to see. It is the dream in the night, the sojourn out of the way, that leads us safely home. Mary and Joseph’s long way to safety makes a point: Jesus is special. He is the person chosen to be the leader of the people. Holy men had written in Scriptures describing what Messiah would be like and how he would appear.

“Out of Egypt I have called my son,” Hosea tells us in the Scriptures. To get away from Herod’s search for the heir to the David's throne, it made sense to go to the neighboring country. But something else is involved here. Getting where we want to go, really want to go, often involves going the long way home. Because it is in the journey that we are given the chance to deal with our brokenness, to discover what is missing in our lives, to confront our unanswered questions.

A gift is given in places where we are broken. We tend to equate brokenness with shabbiness. We toss our spare change into a pot for the entire lot of ill clad, unkempt people who stand on the street corners and mumble to themselves. We view them from inside our locked cars. We think that they are a problem of cities not our local small towns. We have words for them like “homeless,” or “marginalized,” and a thousand other subtle ways of saying, “Not like us.” Not so. The journey into wholeness leads us first to our own brokenness, to an inner Egypt. We can drive a nice automobile, have a comfortable home and be a pillar in our community but find our souls wandering in the desert wilderness. Each one of us who have lived any time at all have experienced a crises within our families, within our sense of who we are at home or at work or both. We are faced with death in the family, personal illness and one or another of the many losses life hands us and we wonder who we are and why there are such large potholes in our spiritual journey.

It is said that prayer is the spiritual journey into the unknown. We have to get rid of the need for certainty. It requires a long time of deep prayer for a person to understand his motivations and become vulnerable to God. The journey into our brokenness is a journey deep into our own being and outward into the unknown, where God is.

To find God we must be willing to undertake the journey to Egypt, into our own questionable motives and hidden wounds. It means leaving behind the familiar and going where only Gods love can feed us. Then we learn truly what Jesus means when he tells us, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,.” for we all are.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall see God.

The journey is about “the dark holes where something is missing.” We don’t like to think that anything is missing. We attempt to impose our definition of perfection on life while the actual process of life is something else altogether.

We imagine the things we must have to make life bearable and in the clutter of stuff, we lose sight of what makes life meaningful.

Most of us wish that life could be without trouble and trial. But we operate under a false view of a perfection that can be reached without darkness, without trouble and without sin and suffering.

We think of perfection as wholeness. Finding wholeness is a process of discovering the full life God always intended for us to have. It means finding our true selves. “

The Holy Family’s journey to Egypt is idealized in early Christian lore, glossing over the difficulty of the journey. The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas tells of palm trees that miraculously bent down to feed the holy family, lions and leopards that wagged their tails in worship. One story tells that in one of the towns they passed through, all the idols in the local temple fell to the ground. It’s human to idealize our journey, to smooth out the rough places as we retell it.

But Scripture doesn’t. The flight to Egypt is also a reminder, an anticipation of the costly and painful price of wholeness for us all. If Jesus is the new Moses, come to deliver us into a new kingdom, then we must make a journey from our present Egypt and be brought out a dangerous and difficult way.

It is tempting to sit and wait for life to come to us, to forsake the journey and simply subsist. But doing that, we stop living life and squander it. Our refusal to follow, either as individuals or as a church does not mean that opportunities won’t be missed. There is a price for delay and disobedience.

At times I have thought, and I’ve heard other Christians say after an apparent failure, “It wasn’t meant to be.” We try to blame God for our failures. The Kingdom will come, even if we have no hand in it, and our improvidence is not to be interpreted as the Providence of God.

The Magi didn’t have to follow the star.

Joseph didn’t have to wed Mary.

God can and will bring in the Kingdom with or without us. We should be diligent so as to eventually enjoy the welcome into peace God offers.

Joseph and Mary could have sought an easier way to avoid Herod’s wrath than the journey to Egypt, but what disaster might an easier way have invited? What might they have missed?

Mary didn’t have to say to the Angel, “Be it done according to your Word.” She didn’t have to be a mother. Life will not come to us on our terms. Joseph’s dream was a call to enter the full danger of the spiritual journey.

Joseph and Mary knew some of the reasons for their journey. Their preeminent motivation for leaving was to escape the possibility that Herod would come after Jesus. But here we meet the question of suffering head-on. Innocent baby boys are killed for nothing more than political insecurity. The point is not how many died, but why God, who could intervene to save Jesus, did not intervene to save dozens of little innocent babies. Never is the idea of life’s purpose more at risk than in the face of innocent and undeserved suffering. Many come to Christmas every year with some unbearable sorrow that seems to render life senseless. “Why did this happen?” they ask. And there is no answer.

Things gone wrong, evil, is not God’s will, but its occurrence is still God’s dark mystery of how he creates good from evil. Jesus did not escape death at the hands of tyranny so much as postpone it. The death of the innocents was not a tragedy Jesus avoided but a tragedy that anticipated the darkest tragedy of all: the saving tragedy of Jesus’ cross.

Matthew affirms that God is not the author of evil. But he does assert that God is evil’s editor. God has the final word. God reframes, restates and corrects evil until it fits within God’s deeper purposes. That is what we want to know in our tragedies and sorrows—that they are not in the end merely empty and sad coincidences, random and broken bits of unfortunate pain.

God’s way is to outwit evil, or use its consequences for good.

We hear from friends all over the United States during the Christmas season. Sometimes in their Christmas letters there are hints of a long journey: a death, an entry into a nursing home, an illness that has changed the course of life forever, or other such things. Some of the letters we receive are from people asking help, as they have experienced disaster or failed in an undertaking. Others are reporting recovery from failures or tragedies.

There is a long way into and out of Egypt that leads us home. It is not the way we would necessarily choose, given our perfectionist ideals and our reluctance to experience pain as a price for joy. But that way is there.

So my prayer for all of us is that we find that no matter where we go on life's journey, God will be there for us, supporting us as he leads us home, just as he did with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Amen.

Joseph's Dilemma

2011-01-02T17:14:00.000-08:00

Dream of Joseph by Rembrandt

This is the short sermon I gave at Morning Prayer at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on December 19, 2010

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25

Yesterday, we heard the Bishop's take on today's readings. I'm not even going to come close to the wisdom that he shared with us, but his message raised some thoughts and questions with me.

What we have heard here in today's Gospel is Joseph’s story. The struggle of a good and righteous man, the struggle to come to terms with the fact his fiance is pregnant and that he is not the Father.

The truth, though, is that this pregnancy was only a part of Josephs dilemma.

The rest of the dilemma lay in the fact that God may have a place for Joseph, a place that only Joseph could fill.

Joseph, despite being a man of faith, could not believe that God would want anything to do with him, and his simple life.

He couldn’t believe that this living God that he worshiped regularly every Sabbath day would want anything to do with his tiny little life.

In God's eyes he saw himself as insignificant; after all, he was just a carpenter wasn’t he? Just your normal everyday person, he wasn’t anyone special was he?

If he was on God's chessboard, he would not have even considered himself to be a pawn worthy of sacrifice.

How dense could he be, how stupid could Joseph be to actually think that this Living God could not use Joseph?

How idiotic could Joseph be to think that God could not find a part for him.

I think we are all pretty stupid times.

We can all be rather dense like just like Joseph.

We may not face the dilemma that Joseph did.

But as a people of faith we often just can’t believe that God would want anything to do with us, and our simple lives.

After all we are nothing special either.

We often can not believe that this living God that we worship would want anything to do with our contribution.

We see ourselves as insignificant as Joseph saw himself.

How can we be so silly?

What Joseph needed was a wake up call, something to bring him back to his senses.

I am glad to say that as Joseph tortured himself over this dilemma. God gave him a wake up call.

One night an angel came to him in a dream, an angel that set the alarm bells ringing in Josephs life. An angel that gave him a wake up call, an angel that told Joseph that God did have a place for him.

It took an angel to convince Joseph of his importance to God.

What is it going to take for you?

What will it take for you to wake up and realize how important you are to God?

What sort of alarm call will it take?

I will leave you these questions for you to ponder as we pray:

Dear God of all,

May you help us, the people, your people gathered here today. To find what you would want us to do so we can become an advent people. Not just to wait for you, but to discern what you have in store for us and to go out and do your will. In your Holy Name. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Unemployment?

2010-12-01T17:16:00.001-08:00

A couple of weeks ago my employer asked for volunteers for a winter layoff. But they did not get many people raising their hand. So in the next couple of days, we will find out who gets shown the door and who doesn't. I am a bit worried for a couple of reasons, I am low on the seniority pole and I happen to make more than others do. That combination would lead me to think that I might be one of those on the chopping block. I am probably stressing over this more than I should but it is a hell of a way to say Merry Christmas to anyone.

I will continue to pray that whenever something blocks my path, God will show me a new path to follow.

Week Four College Football Top Ten

2010-09-24T20:03:00.000-07:00

Here's hoping for a good solid win against Northern Iowa.

Here are my top ten after the third week of play. Iowa dropped out of the top ten because they were upset by Arizona. Oregon moves up to 9th and Wisconsin enters the picture at 10th.

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. Oklahoma
6. Boise State
7. Texas Christian
8. Nebraska
9. Oregon
10. Wisconsin

Iowa State plays Northern Iowa this weekend. Iowa State should handily win over the FCS school. But the Northern Iowa Panthers will definitely put up a good fight and the Cyclones can't overlook them otherwise they could lose to this very good team. And hopefully Iowa State will play better than they did in last week's loss to Kansas State. I'm predicting a 20+ point Cyclone victory.

As I mentioned earlier, the Iowa Hawkeyes were upset by Arizona and thus dropped out of my top ten. But this week they play Ball State and they aren't doing all that well. With the Hawkeyes looking for redemption; the Ball State Cardinals look to be the whipping post. I will predict a 30+ point blowout for the Hawkeyes.

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers are still at the bottom of my rankings after losing to Indiana last week. This week they play at South Florida. The South Florida Bulls are 1-1 so far this season after playing a good but losing game against a top ten Florida squad. I will predict that the Bulls will beat the Hilltoppers by a four touchdown margin.

Good luck to all the teams, except the Northern Iowa Panthers! Go Cyclones!

Week Three College Football Top Ten

2010-09-17T18:52:00.000-07:00

Pullin' tractors, I thought a fitting photo for the "Farmageddon" game between Iowa State and Kansas State

Here are my top ten after the second week of play. No one dropped out of the top ten because they all won with the exception of Boise State who had a bye this week.

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. Oklahoma
6. Boise State
7. Texas Christian
8. Nebraska
9. Iowa
10. Oregon

As the photo says, this week is the "Farmageddon" game between Iowa State and Kansas State, both very good agricultural universities. The game is being played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and should be a pretty good game overall. My personal opinion is that if Iowa State plays like it did against Northern Illinois, then the Cyclones should win by a touchdown but if they play like they did last week against Iowa, then the tables are reversed and Kansas State wins by a touchdown.

The Iowa Hawkeyes handily beat the Iowa State Cyclones last week. As unhappy as it made me, I still recognize that Iowa has a tremendous football team. This week they travel to Arizona to take on the Arizona Wildcats. I think that Arizona may pull off an upset just because they are on their home turf. Either way it will be a good game to watch.

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers lost again last week and remain at the bottom of my rankings. This week they are taking on the Indiana Hoosiers at home. This will be a real tough game for them, a struggling Sun Belt school taking on a team from the Big Ten. I think they will play valiantly but still lose by three or four touchdowns.

Good luck to all the teams, except the Kansas State Wildcats! Go Cyclones!

Week Two College Football Top Ten

2010-09-07T19:19:00.000-07:00

Cy-Hawk Trophy

Here are my top ten after the first week of play. Virginia Tech dropped out of the top ten after their loss to Boise State. Oregon moved up into the tenth spot.

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. Oklahoma
6. Boise State
7. Texas Christian
8. Nebraska
9. Iowa
10. Oregon

This week is the Iowa vs Iowa State game otherwise known as the Cy-Hawk Rivalry. My favorites, the Iowa State Cyclones are way down my list at 53 after handling Northern Illinois last week and the Iowa Hawkeyes as you have already seen are at the 9 spot after beating Eastern Illinois. Even with the disparity in the rankings, I believe that the Cyclones will be way up for this game and give the Hawkeyes something to think about. But in the end the Hawkeyes will prevail. My prediction for a score is Iowa 28, Iowa State 17.

And finally, the team I have on the bottom, Western Kentucky lost to Nebraska and face Kentucky this week. The Hilltoppers should do better but I believe that Kentucky will prevail and Western Kentucky will still stay at the bottom of the list.

Good luck to all the teams, except the Hawkeyes of course. Go Cyclones!

Martha and Mary Sermon

2010-09-06T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is the sermon that I gave at the Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa on July 18, 2010.

I want you to note right at the beginning of this sermon the context in which Luke records this incident in the home of Martha and Mary. Luke places it immediately after Jesus has taught the parable of the Good Samaritan. I think that is significant because in that parable the ‘religious people’ are condemned for not doing the practical thing of helping the man lying injured by the roadside. This incident in the home of Martha and Mary seems to teach the very opposite. The context is important because it helps us to understand the meaning and purpose of this story in the Gospel of Luke and in our lives today.

Martha and Mary, along with their brother Lazarus, are close friends of Jesus. Their home at Bethany, some two miles from Jerusalem, was a familiar place for Jesus and his disciples to rest and relax. Their home would also be the scene of the miracle of the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. So their home is a place often visited by Jesus. Luke tells us that while Jesus was ‘on the way’ – meaning he was heading for Jerusalem, he is invited by Martha to come into her home. Luke tells us in verse 38 that she ‘opened her home.’ This means much more than inviting him in for a cup of coffee and a chat. It speaks of hospitality, which in the time of Christ was heavily regulated by the custom and social expectations of the day. Luke goes on to point out that Martha has a sister called Mary – so we are introduced within three verses to the three main characters in this little story. From the context it would appear that Martha is the older sister and that she is in the role of host.

Luke immediately tells us that Mary sat down at the feet of Christ to listen to what he was saying or teaching. By sitting at his feet Mary is assuming the role of a disciple. We might think nothing of that but such an action was socially unacceptable in its day. No woman could become a disciple of a rabbi or religious leader in the day of Christ. It was just unheard of, in fact it was a scandalous thing for Mary to do and even more so for Christ to allow her to do so. Mary has crossed and broken clear social boundaries and by so doing is in danger of bringing shame upon her household and her family.

All the while Martha has been doing what is socially acceptable and expected of her – preparing the meal for her guests. Look at what is said of Martha. Martha was distracted by her many tasks.’ You know when I sat down and turned that sentence over in my head I was left thinking ‘How was she distracted by all the preparation?’ I mean if you are cooking dinner you usually focus on what has to be done. And then I began to wonder if the distraction was not actually in her heart. Her heart’s desire was to be like Mary, to be where Mary was – sitting at the feet of Jesus – but her sense of duty, her sense of what others expected and others would think made her stay in the kitchen. I just wondered if she was constantly nipping in and out of the kitchen trying to hear what Christ was saying and all the time her frustration levels just grew and grew until finally she let it all out. Note what she says to Jesus; ‘Lord, do you not care…’ That hit me like a thunderbolt. How could she ask such a question of Jesus? But then I thought how often I actually ask that question of Jesus. How often in my heart and my mind I ask that question when my frustration level grows. Sometimes I even find myself saying it out loud; ‘Lord, don’t you care…’ Martha then makes a telling statement – ‘…that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself.’ When I read that phrase I realized that there must have been some point at which Mary abandoned the kitchen, abandoned Martha, abandoned the preparation and went and sat down at the feet of Christ. There must have been some point at which Mary decided that being at the feet of Jesus was more important than the roast lamb or whatever was being cooked. Mary had made a conscious decision that at this, God-given, moment being at the feet of Christ and listening to him was more important than anything else and Martha resented her decision. Martha resented the fact that Mary had left the preparations and gone and sat down at the feet of Christ. Martha wants Christ to tell Mary she was wrong and to commend Martha for her hard work. Now let me ask you a personal question; ‘Are you a Mary or a Martha?’ The truth is that there are some of you here and you are definitely ‘Marthas.’ You are doers, and there is nothing wrong with being a doer, except when it keeps you from the feet of Jesus and when it leads you to criticizing a brother or sister in Christ. Some of you may have that ‘Martha syndrome’ you want everyone to know how much work you have been doing while others sit around listening. Your frustration grows until you lash out at others. Yet Martha goes further than just a complaint, she then commands Jesus to ‘tell Mary to help.’ Do you see progression here – Martha gets busy preparing the meal, living up to the expectations of the day as a host, she gets distracted by all the preparation when really she wants to do what Mary has done – sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to him. Her frustration overflows into anger and bitterness and she questions Jesus’ concern for her and demands he tells Mary to help. If I have to work and not sit at your feet then I demand she has to work also. Ever found yourself in that situation? Have you ever felt yourself asking God that other people do what you are doing? Go through what you are going through? Martha had the gift of hospitality but she wanted Mary to exercise it as well. She didn’t want Mary to enjoy the teaching if she had to work in the kitchen at the same time. But you know the really telling thing about this story – nowhere do you read that Jesus asked Martha to prepare a meal. Nowhere do you read that it was anyone other than Martha who had placed such expectations on herself. If only Martha had realized – it was herself who had fed the distractions which led to the outburst.

This morning maybe, just maybe you need to hear what Jesus said to Martha in response. Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. I can hear the sympathy in the voice of Jesus as he repeats her name; ‘Martha, Martha…’ You have heard it in the voice of others. I can imagine Christ standing arms open, ready to embrace Martha. Martha standing at the door, tears streaming down her flustered cheeks, whilst all around eyes are looking at the ground in silent embarrassment at her outburst. And then she hears that gentle voice call her name ‘Martha, Martha.’ Christ goes on to point out to her how she has allowed her heart to be distracted by many things – he tells her she is ‘worried and upset by many things.’ You know that phrase is similar to the one Christ used when speaking about the seed falling on thorny soil and when it grew the thorns and weeds (which are the worries and upsets of this world) choked it and it died. Christ says the same thing to Martha – Martha don’t allow the worries and upsets of this world to choke the seed of Life in your life. Mary has chosen the ‘better thing.’ But please note that Christ did not say Martha had chosen the wrong thing and Mary had chosen the right thing. The things which Martha had been doing, hospitality, were good things but it was a lesser thing than at that moment sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing the Word of God. I found quite a challenge in those words of Christ. I was challenged by how often I find myself doing things, which are not wrong, but which can distract me from listening to the Word of God. How easily I find myself in Martha’s shoes when I really ought to be in Mary’s shoes. How often I find myself distracted, worried and upset, by many things and neglect the better thing. Is that true for you this morning? Do you find yourself distracted in your heart because you want to be at the feet of Christ listening to his Word but you are distracted living up to the expectations of others around you? Of course you do. Friends I think we all need to hear Jesus speaking to us this morning – it is time to come and sit at his feet and to listen to him speak. It is time to put aside the distractions of a divided heart and to make that time to hear him speak.

I want you to hear what I am saying here. Mary did not sit forever at the feet of Jesus. The next day he would leave and be on his way to Jerusalem. Yet Mary would be able to ponder in her heart what she had heard while sitting at his feet. Mary would be in the kitchen preparing food, doing housework, sharing the workload of preparation but she refused to miss this God-given opportunity to hear Jesus speak. Friends I want to say to some of you here this morning that is God’s word to you today – don’t miss the opportunity to hear God speak. It is time to set aside that God-given opportunity to hear him speak to your heart. It is time to be like Mary and to come out of the kitchen and just to sit for a while at his feet and listen to him – bible study and prayer, fellowship with other believers. The work will be there when you return. He is not saying neglect your duties – what he is saying is ‘get the priorities right.’ There are so many people whose priorities are not right. They are busy doing many things, even things for God and the Church, but they can't even remember the last time they opened their Bible to hear God speak. They can't remember the last time they took time out from their schedule to pray or to have fellowship with other people.

Let me finish with Christ’s final statement to Martha Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken away from her. Do you hear what he is saying hear to Martha and to Mary and to all gathered in that home in Bethany? He is saying that what Mary has heard while sitting at his feet is of eternal value – it will not be taken from her. Sitting in his presence, listening to his voice, hearing the Word of God – it will not be taken from her. Martha you cannot take it from her. No one will be able to take it from her. Martha not even death will take it from her. Now ask yourself – what in my life is of eternal value? What in my life will not be taken from me? How often I hear people say ‘what I would give to be able to go back and …’ Now I don’t want to get to the end of my life as a Christian and wish, with all my soul, I had spent more time in his presence and less time being distracted by the worries and upsets of many things – the expectations of others and the things of the world. Do you? You know I believe it was because Mary spent time at the feet of Jesus. She did not worry what anyone else thought. It would not be taken from her. I believe also it was because of time spent at the feet of Christ, listening to his voice, that enabled Mary and Martha to be at the foot of the Cross as he died. So what if it was not the social norm or expectation. So what if people talked about them – it would not be taken from them.

Today let me leave you with that challenge – are you going to be distracted by the worries and upsets of many things and miss out on the better thing – sitting at the feet of Jesus and hearing his voice?

Amen.

Week One College Football Top Ten

2010-08-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I'm a bit of a wonk when it comes to American style football especially in the Division 1 College ranks. I've went as far as ranking all 120 teams as to where I think they should be rated.

So here are my top ten plus a some others that I find of interest right now.

1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Florida
4. Texas
5. Virginia Tech
6. Oklahoma
7. Boise State
8. Texas Christian
9. Nebraska
10. Iowa

My team, Iowa State, is down the list at 55. As the season progresses, I hope that they can climb the ladder to a higher ranking, but we shall see...

Northern Illinois is the Iowa State Cyclones first opponent. I have them ranked right now at 50, which would make them better than Iowa State. Well, I still predict a win for the Cyclones because they are playing in Ames which makes a big difference. But it should be a good game and I will be there on Thursday night to watch Iowa State get a season opener win.

The Iowa Hawkeyes start out play with the Eastern Illinois Panthers. Eastern Illinois is in a lower division than Iowa and with Iowa in the 10 slot and playing at home; the Hawkeyes should cruise to an easy win. Anything less would question their high ranking in nearly every poll and private ranking system out there.

And finally the team that I have at 120 out of 120, the bottom of the barrel as it were, is Western Kentucky that didn't win a game last year and things aren't looking a heck of a lot better this year especially when they start out play against a top ten Nebraska team.

Well, good luck to all the teams and especially to Iowa State. Go Cyclones!

Amos, Colossae, and the Samaritan Sermon

2010-08-14T06:24:00.000-07:00

I've been neglecting the blog for the past few months so I thought I should probably post the sermons that I've done this summer at the Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa. This is the July 11, 2010 sermon.

In every construction trade, in every business, there are standards of righteousness. By the term righteousness, in the context of construction, we mean being correct. Amos, one of the earliest prophets in Israel, used the plumb line as a metaphor for righteousness.

Israel was more than “a bit out of plumb” in the days of Amos and Isaiah.

The book of Amos records that two years after Amos received his visions, an earthquake struck the area. Josephus, the Jewish historian, believed that the earthquake happened at the same time as Uzziah’s seizure of the role of High Priest and his subsequent bout with leprosy. Amos lived at about the same time as the prophets Isaiah, Micah and Hosea.

Under Jeroboam II the kingdom of Israel reached the zenith of its prosperity. The gulf between rich and poor widened at this time. Amos was called from his rural home in Judea to remind the rich and powerful of God’s requirement for justice. He claimed that religion that is not accompanied by right action is not pleasing to God, and prophesied that the kingdom of Israel would be destroyed.

Because the rulers were not straight with God and the people, because even the walls of the temple (that is the religious establishment) was out of plumb, there would be a ruinous collapse. Of course the leaders in Israel did not want to hear this message and encouraged Amos to move back home.

Amos’ message was, perhaps understandably, unwelcome in Israel. Not only was he a foreigner from the southern kingdom, but his prophecies of doom were completely at odds with the prevailing political climate of hope and prosperity.

Much of the prophecy of Amos is directed at the heartlessness of wealthy merchants who ignore the plight of the poor, the lack of justice for the righteous, and the emptiness of religious ritual apart from true faith. Amos is a classical prophet, concerned with the well-being of the people and the purity of the faith

The central idea of the book of Amos, is that the Lord puts his people on the same level as the nations that surround it. God expects the same sinlessness of them all. As it is with all nations that rise up against the kingdom of The Lord, even Israel and Judea will not be exempt from judgment because of their unjust ways. The nation that represents God must be made pure of anything or anyone that profanes the name of The Lord. God must be exalted.

Now we turn to St. Paul's letter to the Colossians.

Colossae is a town in modern-day Turkey on the banks of the river Lycus, not all that far from Ephesus. In Paul’s day it was neither large nor important. However centuries earlier it had been very prosperous. It has been said that Colossae was the least important church to which any epistle of St. Paul is addressed.

The Church in Colossae was not founded by Paul, because Paul concentrated his work in major centres, such as Ephesus. Many think it was actually founded by a co-worker of his Epaphras, who was described in Colossians as a native of Colossae.

Even though Colossae was small it was probably quite diverse, made up of people from the surrounding area, Greek settlers and Jews. Just like other towns in Asia Minor it is likely that Colossae had its fair share of pagan temples and shrines as Paul alludes to their pagan past in several places.

The reason for Paul writing this letter is not apparent in the opening chapter. Why? Because before he corrects, he encourages. Paul starts with praise, and sincere praise at that.

We read how he gives thanks because of their faith in Christ Jesus and their love for the saints. And he gives thanks for their love was a love in the Spirit, in other words a love that springs up as a result of their faith. Paul encourages them by telling them what he has been praying for them.

I am encouraged that the book of Colossians is in the Bible. It reminds me that God is interested in the little churches as well as the large churches. God is interested in Churches like Church of the Saviour here in Clermont.

In Luke we heard the familiar story of the Good Samaritan.

A lawyer was asking Jesus about gaining eternal life. As we look at the passage we see that there is nothing wrong with the lawyer’s knowledge of scripture. But even in Jesus' reply we see the participation in the knowledge that Jesus insists on “ do this and you will live. ” Now the lawyer being a smart man knows that it is very difficult for anyone to judge his heart or his relationship with God goes directly to the part that he sees would be most difficult. How do I love my neighbor that way? And in his question he asks Jesus to define or limit who his neighbor is.

But Jesus doesn’t answer the question, have you ever noticed how Jesus does that in your life, he doesn’t answer the questions you ask? But responds with a story.

A man is beaten and robbed as he traveled between Jerusalem and Jericho. The first guy to walk by this guy who had just been beaten , stripped and left for dead is a priest and he walks by intentionally not helping. It is possible that he didn't want to help because he would be considered ritually impure if got too close to a dead body and thus couldn't perform the required rituals in the Temple. Then a Levite walks by, someone that is actively involved in the order and leading of worship, and he doesn't stop either. And then this Samaritan walks by and stops. Samaritans were generally hated by the Jews at the time, why? Well, the Samaritans were descended from the people who did not get exiled to Babylonia several hundred years earlier. Probably because they were on the Babylonians side during that conquest. They had very similar religious views but did not recognize the religious authorities in Jerusalem. So that is the reason for the animosity between the two groups. Back to the story: This guy who is a Samaritan and who is not involved with all the religious stuff does stop to help the man. He Shows mercy in three ways:

He provides emergency care by bandaging the wounds and pouring oil and wine on them.

He makes a personal commitment by placing him on his animal thereby he’s walking he takes him to an inn and cares for him. He commits to covering the cost of caring for him. I like to think of this as the rehabilitative cost or the long term costs. The man’s life is no longer in immediate danger but he is far from healthy. Then Jesus asks the lawyer, which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor?

And the lawyer reply’s, “the one who showed mercy”

And Jesus leaves him saying “You go and do Likewise.”

What Jesus does is inclusive of all people where as the definition the lawyer was seeking was to be exclusive limiting who his neighbor is. And what Jesus does is make it clear that in terms of the kingdom of God you cannot define who your neighbor is, you can only be a neighbor by responding with mercy to those in need. As Martin Luther King Jr. said in his great sermon on this passage was that the Priest and Levite where so concerned about what would happen to them if they got involved that they missed what the Samaritan saw, If I don’t stop and help this man, what will happen to him? And this is the question Jesus desires to burn into each of our hearts. If you don’t show mercy, What will happen?

My prayer for all of us is that we need to try to become straight as a plumb line, remember that God is interested in small Churches in small places, and that we need to show mercy and help all people in need, regardless of who they may be. Amen.

Uncle Bob: Rest In Peace, Rise In Glory

2010-05-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

Bob Martin, July 15, 1939 - May 10, 2010

Uncle Bob died yesterday, he was a great guy who loved his family and the things he valued in life, namely fishing and nearly all organized sports. The first time I met him was when I was dating my lovely wife, we were at their house and he came in from a softball game, he looked at me and said, "Who are you?" I introduced myself and he then asked me if I wanted a Pepsi. I became friends with him and over the years went to various sports events with him as well as watching auto races, football and basketball games with him on the television. After he retired (he worked for Pepsi as a vending machine repairman) he started fishing. It was great to go out with him on his boat and catch a fish or two.

More importantly, Uncle Bob became like a second dad to my wife after her father died. She was able to get to the hospital just before Bob passed away. My lovely wife is mourning but does know that he is in a better place and not in pain anymore.

Rest eternal grant to Bob, O Lord;
And let light perpetual shine upon him.
May his soul, and the souls of all the departed,
through the mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.

A full obituary can be found here

Getting a break

2010-04-24T17:44:00.000-07:00

How I love the rain. Especially when it means that I don't have to be working 12+ hour days, six days a week. But that is what I get for working at a farm cooperative during the spring field work season. This spring is a bit different in that I am mostly running a dry fertilizer floater. For all of you that are not familiar with midwestern US farming practices, a dry fertilizer floater is a large truck that has wide farm tractor style tires on it and a box on the back of it that looks like a dump truck box except it has a conveyor belt in the bottom which moves fertilizer out the back to a couple of spinners which throw the fertilizer in a specific pattern onto the field. It was rather unnerving to drive it at first because it is so tall. The floor of the cab is over five and a half feet off the ground and while driving down the road I can look down into the cabs of semis as I meet them. But I've become a bit more relaxed driving it in the last couple of weeks.

I was hoping to add a photo of the floater to the blog but I keep forgetting to take my camera to work so I can get a decent photo. My phone camera isn't very good and the photos I've taken with it are rather fuzzy.

Now, I believe that I will go to sleep, just because I can....

Grace and Peace to all.

A Gabby update

2010-03-12T17:27:00.000-08:00

My niece, Gabby did come home this week after her trip back to the hospital last Saturday. After running a bunch of tests on her, the results were still inconclusive as to what was causing her skin reaction. Thanks to all for the prayers that went out. She is doing well and felt good enough to go to her sister's concert on Thursday evening. Hopefully she will heal and there won't be anything else to report.

Prayers for Gabby

2010-03-07T12:40:00.001-08:00

I asking everyone for prayers for my 14 year old niece Gabby, who is back in the hospital today. Gabby had a rash that turned into MRSA about 10 days ago. She ended up having the skin completely removed on a 10 cm x 10 cm area on her arm. After a couple of skin graft operations, she was doing really well and was sent home yesterday. However, after being home for about 6 hours her stomach and legs started to hurt. A rash very similar to her arm was showing up on her stomach and legs. So she went back to the hospital last night and is undergoing a battery of tests to figure out exactly what is going on and how to treat it.

Thanks to everyone who have already added Gabby to their prayers!

The new brush.

2010-02-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

I was excited the other day when a package arrived in the mail. It was in a plain brown wrapper, no it wasn't one of THOSE packages! What it did contain was my new shaving brush. Why would I be excited about something as mundane as this? The answer lies in that I have a pretty boring life and such things are about as exciting as it gets around these parts. And also that I'm somewhat a traditionalist when it comes to shaving so the soap and brush gets preference over the foam in a can. I purchased it from a place in Ohio called Lehman's, one can find most of their catalog at www.lehmans.com

As I look through their wares and purchase a thing or two I will post those mundane things on my little corner of the blogosphere.

Good News!

2010-01-17T15:42:00.000-08:00

Today at the Bishop's Committee meeting at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa, we received some very good financial news. It seems that the total amount of pledges has risen by over 26% as compared to last year. I have heard from a number of other local Churches of all denominations with a common theme, congregations are putting less and less in the collection plate.

So it is truly a Godsend to be part of a small but growing congregation that doesn't have to worry whether there will be enough money to keep the lights on and the toilet flushing.

A Baptism of Jesus and the Holy Spirit sermon

2010-01-16T06:54:00.000-08:00

This is a sermon that I gave on January 10, 2010 at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa.

Don’t you hate it? You are watching a great movie on T.V. The excitement is mounting. You are getting to a really good part. You are sitting on the edge of your seat. Then right in the middle before the plot is revealed or the plot takes a new and exciting twist, a commercial comes on. For the next two to three minutes you see commercials about everything imaginable.

We are told that advertisers may buy at least forty time slots on a single station, for a single day, when introducing a new product. No doubt they are on to something. Classic sayings abound. “Plop. Plop. Fizz. Fizz. Oh, what a relief it is.” “Snap, Crackle , Pop.” “Don’t Leave Home With Out It.” "Finger lickin’ good." "Have a break. Have a Kit-Kat." "Just do it." “Built Ford Tough.”

The very successful media people have one question in mind: Have you heard? We have heard. We remember those jingles, even years after they have been taken off the air. They are memorable. Now, I wonder, have we heard the Gospel? It is full of the Good News of the gospel! Did we give it our full attention to hearing it? Do we hear the Gospel with all our channels on, our tuning controls adjusted and the sound turned up?

There is a lot of interference in our lives. Sometimes we even may experience a complete breakdown in the reception. Just as when it comes time to hear a sermon. The sleep mode kicks in or we put everything on mute. Hearing is not easy even at the best of times. I read a story about a church that installed devices for the hearing impaired. One man in his mid-eighties had been going to the church regularly for years. But in these later years he was unable hear very well. Still, he came to be present, to have a feel for what was happening, to imagine what was being said, to read the preacher’s lips and catch enough to enable him to later talk with his wife about the main points. The day came; he was given a receiver; he placed the earphones in his ear. As he left the church all he could say was, "I could hear. For the first time in years I could hear, but I guess I didn’t miss much.”

When Jesus was baptized a voice spoke to him, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased. ” According to some of the gospel accounts it seems that Jesus was the only one who heard that voice even though he was baptized with others. Was it because the voice was only spoken to him or was no one else really listening? How easy it is to tune out the voice of God, to focus our lives on the routine, the practical, the house to be cleaned, the oil change for the car, the errands to be run, taking the kids to their various activities. How easy it is tune out the voice of the world. Even though we now live in a "global village" our own little worlds are becoming smaller.

As the earth becomes one family, the fences become higher around our lives. Often it is said people don’t visit like they use too. How ironic that we are becoming more insular in a world that has become much smaller. We would rather keep to ourselves than hear the voices of others. One thing is clear, God needs many channels, many witnesses, and many voices speaking the Good News. That is why the baptism of Spirit comes not only to Jesus, but also through Jesus to his followers, that’s us. We are the voices of the Spirit. We are communicators of the gospel in the midst of the world. We are called, every one of us to live each day with the central question in our minds, heart, and souls: Have you heard? We need to ask ourselves have we affirmed this part of our baptism - the promise that God will speak through us for the transformation of the world? Have we considered the promise of a Spirit who will work in us and through us in many surprising ways for the blessing of God’s people?

Earlier in this Chapter, John the Baptist had been preparing for an important visitor. He encouraged people to turn to God and baptized them in the Jordan River. Baptism was normally administered to Gentiles, non-Jews, who wanted to join the Jewish religion. For a Jew to submit to baptism required great humility. It was as if they were admitting to not being part of God’s people, and wanting to join them.

There was also the symbolism of washing. Baptism conveyed a spiritual cleansing, turning from what was wrong to make a fresh start with God. So this should affect the way they lived their lives. The chronological order of this was :

someone decides to turn away from living life their own way and start living for God.
they are baptized to symbolize this.
They have to live for God in a practical way.

John’s ministry caused people to question if he was the Messiah or anointed one from God whom they were expecting. John makes it clear that he is not, and that the Messiah will be superior to him in a number of ways.

The most menial job that a slave could do was to untie someone’s sandal before washing their feet. That is why none of the disciples volunteered to do this job before the Last Supper in the Gospel of John. It was a vile job because people’s shoes and feet would be caked with who knows what from the streets. John is saying that he is not even worthy to do this menial job for Jesus. He said that he baptized in water. This Baptism was inferior to that of Jesus. John’s baptism signified that people wanted to turn from their sin to live life God’s way. But it gave them no power to live like that. It was not a Christian baptism because it did not involve the death of Jesus, or the work of the Holy Spirit. The first Christian baptisms were administered to three thousand people on the first day of Pentecost.

John said, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. " What did he mean by this? This is not saying that pouring water on someone’s head with water, or plunging someone under water will make them a Christian. It is saying that Jesus will give the baptism of, or immerse or flood his followers with, the Holy Spirit when they give control of their life to him.

In the Bible, fire can be used in a number of ways. Here it is referring to the refining or purifying work on God’s Holy Spirit. A precious metal such as gold or silver is heated up to burn away any impurities. The Holy Spirit also works like fire, burning away our nasty bits, making us more like Jesus. God the Holy Spirit gives us the power to be holy. The word holy means set apart for God. He lives inside all Christians and being God, and being Holy is opposed to that which is unholy, not of God.

John goes on to talk of how Jesus will divide and judge people. "His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

The winnowing fork was used to toss wheat and chaff into the air. The wheat grains, being heavier would fall straight to the ground. The lighter chaff would be blown to one side, and be swept away to be burned. This represents the way that God will one day judge people in the way that they have responded to him. Those who have accepted God into their lives will be gathered up, taken to be with God for ever. Those who do not accept God will be condemned to spend an eternity without God. This is another way that fire is used in the Bible. To refer to the punishment that awaits the unrepentant.

Did John the baptist have the Holy Spirit within him? Of course he did, just like all of the prophets in the old testament had the Holy Spirit within themselves. Do we have the Holy Spirit within us? I believe that God, through the Holy Spirit, does work within each one of our lives. In Acts today, Peter and John laid hands upon some Samaritans and then the Holy Spirit became very evident within those people. This is very much like when the Bishop lays his hands upon the heads of the confirmands at their confirmation.

So my prayer for all of us today is that we recognize that the Holy Spirit is within us. And that we use the Holy Spirit to do God's will within our lives as well as in the wider world.

I would like to close today with the following:

Spirit of the living God,

Fall afresh on us,

Spirit of the living God,

Fall afresh on us,

Melt us, mold us, fill us, use us,

Spirit of the living God,

Fall afresh on us.

Amen.

Don't let the bastards get you down.

2010-01-15T20:16:00.000-08:00

A week ago I was called into the headquarters for the farm cooperative that I work for. I was told that they were "rearranging the seats on the bus" and that my position was going to change. Well my seat went from being towards the front of the bus to being somewhere by the frame and the rear tires. I was pissed to say the least, they were transferring me to a different branch and dropping my wages. All of this was due to a restructuring of the company and a run in that I had with a salesman that is the current golden boy of the company.

For a few days, I felt as if the dark specter of depression might be creeping back into my life. But I did recognize it and with the help of my lovely wife and God, I can keep that monkey off my back. And I decided that I can't let those bastards get me down.

But compared to what people in Haiti are dealing with, my problems are minuscule. So please pray for all of the people that are having to suffer through the aftermath of the earthquake.

The beginning of a journey.

2010-01-04T21:58:00.000-08:00

After much prayerful thought, I've finally decided to get the ball rolling vocationally for me. I've sent a letter to my Bishop to let him know that I want to officially get going on the priesthood ordination process. This isn't something that I come by lightly or something that I decided on overnight. It is the culmination of a dozen years of discernment that started in the United Methodist Church and ended up in the Episcopal Church. Along the way I was even offered a local church pastorate but I had the feeling that God wanted me to wait for something else. That something else was the Episcopal Church and specifically the Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. It is a place where my family and I feel like we really have found a Church home. As one of the parishioners puts it, "Church of the Saviour is the home to people that don't fit in other Churches. It like the island of misfit toys where everything seems to actually fit together."

As time goes by I will be having a post now and then about my journey through the candidacy process.

A Wise Guy Sermon

2010-01-03T11:26:00.000-08:00

Here is the sermon that I gave at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa today, January 3, 2010.

Even though today is still in the Christmas season the Gospel lesson tells us the story of the Wise Men. Epiphany is the time when we celebrate the coming to the three Wise Men to meet Jesus and their encounter with King Herod

But have you ever stopped to think what would have happened if it had been the three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men?

They would have asked directions in Bethlehem rather than feeling that they needed to stop off at the Palace in Jerusalem,
They would have arrived on time,
They would have helped deliver the baby; they would have cleaned the stable and given practical gifts – like bringing a casserole and
There would be Peace on Earth.

But who were these wise men – the Magi?

Very little is known about the Magi.

Matthew doesn’t even record how many of them there were.

All the Bible tells us is that they came from the East to Jerusalem. And so it is more than likely they were not Jews but Gentiles.

Popular myth calls them astrologers but that wasn’t necessarily so.

It is generally accepted that the Magi were a priestly caste from Persia where modern Iran and Iraq are now located.

In the second century, a church father named Tertullian suggested that these men were kings because the Old Testament had predicted that kings would come to worship the Christ. Tertullian also concluded that there were three kings based on the number of gifts mentioned, gold, frankincense and myrrh.

In the sixth century, someone decided that their names were Melchior, Baltazar and Gaspar.

And the term Magi is the base from which our modern words magician and magistrate are derived.

I would like to focus on the gifts they brought. If the Scripture can be bothered to record them so carefully - there must be a reason for doing so.

The gifts were: gold, frankincense and myrrh

The first gift was Gold.

Gold signifies Jesus’ Kingly role. What is more fitting than gold for a King!

If Jesus is to be the King in my life, then I am challenged by the thought: What gold can I bring to Jesus today?

In other words: What do we hold onto as precious that we can give to God?

The second gift was frankincense. Why did they give frankincense to Jesus?

Frankincense was an ingredient used by the priests in temple worship to blend with the smell of the sacrifices.

To me it signifies Jesus’ priestly role.

Jesus was the King of Jews, but he was also the "great high priest."

The writer of the book of Hebrews expressed it like this:

"For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people."

As Paul puts it, One of Jesus’ greatest desires is that we offer up our lives as a sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

In other words, that we live for God and cultivate a deep relationship with Him

So the gift of Frankincense speaks to me of a daily time of quiet that we should spend with Jesus - in prayer and Bible Study.

This is often the hardest time to find. As we live busy lives, this is the first thing that gets pushed to the bottom of the pile.

Is this the gift you can bring to Jesus today? Our gift of time?

The third gift was myrrh.

Myrrh is a very intense perfume. In Jesus’ time, people used Myrrh on their dead. A thoughtless gift, you might say for a baby shower?

Not for this baby. For myrrh signifies the death of Jesus. These wise men, in their wisdom knew that Jesus was born to die.

The writer of the book of Hebrews put it like this: ".. we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."

So when I think of myrrh, I am challenged to think of why Jesus came to earth – to die for the sins of all the world. And that makes me consider mission work.

Jesus has called his Church to share the Good News to all nations.

Is a willingness to share the good news of Jesus with your friends and neighbors the gift that you might bring to Jesus today.

Or perhaps you might consider supporting a mission through Episcopal Relief and Development or helping out in our Swaziland fund instead?

In conclusion, I’d like to leave you with a thought from the presents that the Magi brought to Jesus.

What Gold, Frankincense or Myrrh do you believe God is calling you to bring to Christ at this time?

Gold – do we have something we hold precious that we can offer to Jesus?

Frankincense – are we prepared to give more time that we hold precious to God each day– for example a longer time of quiet with Him each day and

Myrrh –are we prepared to be more willing to share the Gospel, its good news and sacrifice, with those around us?

My prayer for all of us is that we are willing to give these three gifts to God today, tomorrow, and all throughout this year

Amen.

A bit chilly....

2010-01-02T14:48:00.000-08:00

A view to the north.

Tonight the low temperatures are supposed to be a bit on the cold side, the forecast is calling for air temperatures to be -17 F (-27 C) and the wind chill forecast is a balmy -26 F (-32 C). Right now it is -2 F (-19 C) and actually it doesn't feel bad at all outside. I took the above photo while I was out doing chores this afternoon. Even though I had problems with watering the livestock due to the cold, the chores went well.

So to everyone, stay warm and safe tonight. God Bless.

Thanks for 2009

2010-01-02T10:09:00.000-08:00

The restroom at Church of the Saviour in Clermont.

What are the things that I'm thankful for during the past year?
Well there are many things....
Such as being thankful for my family, the kids have grown in many ways, physically, emotionally, spiritually. It is hard to believe that all of them are now in school.
I'm thankful for getting a different job, one that pays much better and allows me to work in agriculture and actually get paid for it.
I'm thankful for being a part of a growing congregation at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa, where after 142 years there is finally indoor plumbing!
I'm thankful for my lovely wife, Marcia, who has put up with me for over 21 years.
And the thing that sums it all up best is this:
I'm thankful to God for all that I have and all that I am.

It's the weekend!

2009-12-12T07:26:00.001-08:00

Believe it or not, it is Saturday and I'm not at work! This is the first Saturday that I've been off since October and I will be having Sunday off also. I knew that there were going to be some weekend work when I took this job but I didn't think that there was going to be quite this long of a stretch. But we did get a whole bunch of acres of dry fertilizer applied this fall, in total it was about 30,000 acres. That isn't too bad for a single coop location.

Snow, Snow, Snow

2009-12-09T18:37:00.001-08:00

Our front yard after the snow had fallen.

Starting yesterday, Tuesday, December 8th, snow started falling and didn't stop until this afternoon, I would say that we ended up with about a foot of snow. The wind picked up and we got a bunch of blowing snow which has made the roads impassable. As a result I didn't make it into work today but I stayed home and worked here. Maybe tomorrow sometime I will make it into work.

Just call me "Crash"

2009-09-10T21:14:00.001-07:00

My car after the tire encounter.

Last Thursday night, September 3rd, I was driving home with my 16 year old daughter and my 10 year old son from the Iowa State football game in Ames, Iowa. While I was cruising down US highway 20, a pickup truck passed me, which in itself isn't unusual because I tend to drive at or slightly above the posted speed instead of 10 miles per hour over it. What was unusual is that the pickup had it's tailgate down and was loaded down with wooden posts which were tied down with a rope, the spare tire was also tied with a rope. Unfortunately, the tire was hanging down over the passenger side edge of the pickup box. As it went by I thought to myself, "There is an accident waiting to happen."

A couple of miles later there was suddenly this tire bouncing in my lane. At first I thought it was going to land on the car but I ran into it just as it hit the ground. This caused my car to ramp up onto the tire, then turn over on it's side and finally onto it's top. It skidded on it's top for quite a ways. Luckily none of us were hurt too bad, my daughter just got a small cut, my son had some abrasions and bruises from the seat belt, and I had the worst of it with a banged up shoulder and bruised ribs. Some of the cars behind me stopped and the folks helped us out of the car. We were transported to the hospital in Iowa Falls where we were examined and finally released after my wife got there.

So we are in the market for a different car or perhaps two. I think that we will get a Subaru after this one held up so well in the accident.

UPDATE: Since I didn't actually get this posted until over two weeks from the accident, I can give an update. I am doing ok but my left ribs and shoulder are still sore. My left knee sometimes hurts too. I am healing but I am impatient and sometimes I do more than I should so it sets me back a bit.

We did get two Subarus after all. A '97 and a '01. More to come on that later.

Addition at Church of the Saviour in Clermont

2009-08-16T20:17:00.000-07:00

The addition at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa is progressing nicely. The photo above shows the flooring that was salvaged out of an old house in Decorah, Iowa. It matches the flooring in the Church and is of approximately the same age (about a 140 years old). The flooring is leaning against the former exterior stone wall which will remain uncovered when the addition is finished. As one can see, the ceiling is not completed as of yet since the carpenter is now finishing up the outside of the building. In about a month or so, the much anticipated toilet will be installed and flushable, so there won't be any running to the park or the gas station for personal needs.

In Loving Memory

2009-04-27T19:13:00.000-07:00

In loving memory of Beth Patterson

Beth is the oldest daughter of a dear friend. She was a light to all that knew her. I am positive that Beth is now listening to the choirs of angels in heaven. Below is her obituary.

Beth Marie Patterson, 24, of Elkader, died Sunday, April 26, 2009, at Central Community Hospital in Elkader following a sudden illness. She was born October 4, 1984, at the Delaware County Hospital in Manchester to Brien and Brenda (Rosburg) Patterson. Beth was baptized March 27, 1986, at the Wadena Presbyterian Church and confirmed at the United Methodist Church. She was raised in Wadena (from 1984 through 1996) and Strawberry Point (1997 through 2003); attended Valley and Starmont Schools and graduated from Starmont Community Schools in 2003.

Beth was in 4-H for nine years and served on county council for three years and Area Council two years. She was a member of Valley Superiors 4-H Club in Wadena. In 2002, Beth received senior 4-H Volunteer Award. She was a dedicated basketball manager for four years at Starmont High School. Following graduation, Beth moved to Elkader, where she became a member of the Rise Community and was employed by Rise Ltd. She enjoyed volunteering at the office of the Clayton County Clerk of Court.

Beth was a very loving young woman. She loved her family and all of her little cousins. She also loved animals, especially her two special cats, Minnie and Mickey, her cow, Marie and dog Sally. Her father is still dealing with the spoiled cows she created in his beef herd. Scrap booking was another of her interests that she took pride in. Beth also took pride in making fleece blankets for family members.

Survivors include her father, Brien Paul (Margie Rice) Patterson of Wadena; her mother, Brenda Kay (fiancé Kevin Scott) of Strawberry Point; three sisters, Benita Patterson of Ames, Breina (Wayne) Burgin of Lamont, Marissa (Joe) Lenth of Arlington; three brothers, Kent (Amanda) Scott of Cedar Rapids, Kendrick Scott of Cedar Rapids, Tyler Rice of Marquette; maternal grandmother, Darlene Rosburg of Arlington; several aunts, uncles and cousins; her boyfriend, Andrew Heller of Elkader and numerous friends.

Brenda and Kevin are to be married on Saturday and Beth was going to be her mother's maid of honor.

Beth was preceded in death by her paternal grandparents, Lyle and Faye Patterson and maternal grandfather Cecil Rosburg.

Because of Beth's love for 4-H, her wish was for memorials to be directed to Fayette County 4-H Foundation.

Doubting Thomas Sermon

2009-04-19T19:15:00.000-07:00

My son Thomas, who has been known to doubt on occasion.

This was a sermon that I gave at Jimmy's Cafe in Elgin, Iowa to the congregation of The Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on April 19, 2009. The service was moved due to construction at the Church.

The scripture basis for this message is John 20:19-20:31

Thomas must have felt that he had a bit of a raw deal. For he really missed out on that first Easter Sunday. Thomas must be the definitive everyman, for there is a little bit of him in each of us, and what he missed has much to teach us.

Firstly, Peace. “Peace” Jesus said to the disciples in the locked room. What a relief for them, a frightened, persecuted, and bewildered group, hidden away in a locked room “for fear of the Jews”. It could conceivably have been the same upper room that was the site of Christ’s final, most significant teaching: triumph become disaster within only a few days. His first words were “Shalom” – “Peace”. He could have spoken first of his disappointment, of his anger at them for their denial, abandonment, misunderstanding and betrayal. However, Peace is what he bestows on his disciples, and in saying this he echoes what he had said in the upper room on the last night he had been with them: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid”

And Thomas missed the peace.

Next, Pardon. Jesus had already forgiven or pardoned the disciples when he bestowed peace upon them; but he spoke explicitly of pardon when he spoke of forgiving and retaining sins. What Christ empowered the apostles to do, his Church continues to do.

The pardon of our Saviour can be available to us, only if we make some concessions: God cannot fill our cup with forgiveness if it is already filled to the brim with bitterness.

God cannot embrace us with forgiveness if our arms are carrying the heavy burden of resentment.

God cannot take our hand in forgiveness, if our fists are clenched in anger.

God cannot forgive the malevolent, shadowy side of our spirits if our minds are darkened by revenge and hate.

In his cry of doubt, Thomas shows his own unwillingness to make concessions to Jesus, expecting Christ to come to him and show even his most intimate wounds, associated with the world’s greatest humiliation, with nothing given in return.

So Thomas missed out on the pardon of Christ.

Finally, Presence. The real, concrete, Glorious Presence of God came to those disciples. Woody Allen said that “95% of life is just ‘showing up’” Thomas had simply failed to ‘show up’.

And so Thomas missed the presence.

He missed out, and that must have hurt; especially for one so previously intimate with our Lord. Peace, Pardon and Presence, Thomas missed them all. In their place he demanded a substitute for them, something which our cynical society constantly craves, and which we, in our inmost, darkest times before the dawn hanker after, another “P” – “Proof”

And this is why I must conclude that Thomas must be just like us, because although graced with apostolic sainthood, he is shown to be above all like us. In our struggle to maintain the Christian life, we too miss out on Peace, Pardon and the Presence of Christ, and in return we torture ourselves over Proof.

Despite being promised how blessed we would be if we believe without physical proof, the burden of rationality rests upon our faith like a cumbersome weight - `Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe’. Thomas craves certainty, clarity, proof: an empty tomb and the reports of his colleagues are simply not enough. And these things have not changed: the quest for proof to bridge the gap between us and the living Godhead remains constant through the ages: from the Upper Room, through the middle ages, past the reformation and into our present age.

So, was Thomas just going through the motions of discipleship? Was he incapable of commitment to faith beyond proof? I think not, for he learns in his shame that his Lord was indeed his God: a shame almost comparable to the remorse felt by Peter when he had denied Christ. Both are forgiven, both are justified by the risen Christ, and they are used as examples to us, we the less immediate disciples: learn from Thomas and believe without having to put your hand into his side.

There is a painting I've seen, where Jesus lets Thomas get right up close to see his wounds. Thomas is bent over – at eye-level with the pierced side, and Jesus is guiding his hand so that he might feel the wound for himself. Most graphically, Thomas’ finger is buried in the gaping hole in Our Lord’s side, all the way up to the knuckle.

We do not have that privilege; but how much we would all like to swap places with Thomas, and to be able to quench those nagging doubts once and for all with a little physicality.

When Thomas was given the opportunity to experience the risen Christ, the Presence of Christ in his life, he was also able to experience the Pardon, a blessing even, and through that he is able to experience the Peace; a true peace which can only come from an intimate, life-changing encounter with the risen Lord. Thomas therefore was ultimately able to catch up with those special events, and through this, to be able to conclude that he was faced by “My Lord and My God”. He did not miss out.

‘Blessed are those who believe when they have not seen’ . St John the Evangelist speaks directly to us at the end of this Gospel passage, a ‘direct-to-camera’ piece which reminds us of the purpose of his gospel, the purpose of all the gospels, which is to enable us, nearly 2000 years after these marvelous events, to be able to believe. He says to us that “Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book” , events which may have been trivial: encounters, comforts, healings even, which the risen Christ took part in during those heady days between Easter and the Glorious Ascension, proof which existed, but which we do not need.

As Thomas discovered, faith is therefore not something which can be scientifically rationalized, and all such rationalizations have been ultimately disappointing in their conclusions. Thomas thought to begin with that he needed a concrete solution, and failed to realize that he ignored the qualitative, the abstract, the core that makes up Faith; for this he nearly missed out, and the danger is that we too may miss out.

Look beyond the Proof – and there is proof out there, if you really want to fruitlessly search hard enough for it – and seek the faith that is found behind this account.

We will always remember Thomas as the one who dared to question the reports of his fellow disciples – “doubting Thomas”. However, his one definitive statement is the finest example of belief – “My Lord and My God”.

How dare we call him doubting Thomas after that: “professing Thomas”, perhaps, “confessing Thomas”, maybe, and now, most undoubtedly, “believing Thomas”

“My Lord and My God”.

We declare.

We bear witness.

We believe.

Amen.

It's my birthday and I will cry if I want to....

2009-02-25T08:12:00.000-08:00

Modeling a hat stolen from one of my daughters.

Yep today is my birthday. I'm now a whopping 41 years old and feel like the best years of my life are ahead of me. Of course, my foresight is normally as bad as my eyeballs without glasses but that is besides the point. Anyway, I hope that all have a reflective Ash Wednesday and keep thinking about the important things in life as we move towards Easter.

Keep Alert!

2009-01-23T14:06:00.000-08:00

Steeple at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa

This is a sermon that I gave on November 23, 2008 at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. The scripture basis for this is Matthew 25:31-46, Ezekiel 34:11-24, and Ephesians 1:15-23.

The following is a brief meditation based on writings by Claudia Burney:

"Jesus' family lives next door. He’s got an eight-year-old niece and her three-year-old brother. The Son of Man is the uncle of those starving Ethiopian children. They only gets breakfast and lunch at school, when they make it. His sister is a crack addict. His aunts are illegal immigrants, and the processing plant is closing. Poor King of Kings.

Jesus' brother is two houses down and has six children. and his sister-in-law’s pregnant with the seventh. I don’t know if they haven’t figured out what birth control is, or what, but how can his brother feed all those babies on that salary? That means hardworking taxpayers’ money has to go for the Christ’s family food stamps! It's not the right thing to do...

The child of the Lord is a crazy man-paranoid schizophrenic. If he doesn’t take his medication, he walks up and down the street, cussing and spitting on everybody he passes. He’s homeless. Digs out of the trash cans for food. Somebody ought to get him off the street. Jesus' son is nothing but a nuisance. I’m starting to see the family of the Son of God everywhere I go. They're always crying or begging or looking pitiful. Why don’t they pull themselves up by their bootstraps? This is America! Makes me mad. They're ruining our neighborhood and taking our jobs! Somebody ought to do something about them. Somebody ought to. Somebody...."

Perhaps Jesus lives right next door to you or down the road a few miles.

He may even be in your own home.

The question I’d like us to ponder this morning is “What are we going to do about Jesus?”

What are we going to do about the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the shivering, the sick, the imprisoned?

What are we going to do about Jesus?

Maybe we ought to start with, “What are we gonna do about these teachings of Jesus?”

Let’s consider Jesus’ parables that we've been hearing for the past few months.

A few chapters back in the Gospel of Matthew, in Matthew 13 Jesus tells the story of a field with some good crops and some weeds.

Since Jesus was speaking to people who understood at least the basics of farming, when Jesus got to the part about the weeds, the natural reaction of the crowd had to be, “Pull ‘em up! Plant good crops in their place.”

But Jesus has the landowner in the story leave the weeds in place.

Huh? Why?

Later on, in Matthew Chapter 20, Jesus tells an equally undermining story.

The owner hires some workers to work in the vineyard in the early morning.

Around nine o’clock some other guys show up and start working alongside them.

The same happens at noon and three- o’clock.

And they all get paid the same amount.

Scandalous!

These and other parables of Jesus inform us that the Kingdom of God looks a lot different from the kingdom of the world we live in.

Let’s face it.

In our culture, we have an understanding of a kingdom which is deeply embedded in return on investment.

And this worldly culture-type of thinking sometimes enters our churches.

Church-growth consulting firms often provide charts and statistics showing where and how much investment will be required to “grow” a congregation.

But does this type of model, resonate with the model that Jesus Christ puts forth?

Is it what Jesus would do?

“Of course!” some of us might exclaim, as we move logically down the line in Matthew’s parables.

“What about the parable of the talents?
Didn’t Jesus talk about using our resources well?”
To that, the answer my friends is a big resounding “Yes!”

But what does that mean in God’s Kingdom?

Does it mean building fancy buildings and having the most state-of-the-art equipment in order to stay in the race with the world?
Or does it mean something more?

One thing we can see for sure as we look at Jesus’ parables is that God is already at work.

This is what the parable of the vineyard presupposes.

We don’t create the vineyard; we join as workers.

Whether you’re coming in at six in the morning or nine or noon or three in the afternoon, the harvest is huge.

And the Return on Investment may not work the same as the return on our 401(k).

This is why Matthew 25 is so important as we try and answer the question: “What are we going to do about Jesus?”

Why did Matthew follow the parable of the talents with the parable of the sheep and goats, anyway?

Perhaps the answer is this: The Return on Investment for properly using the resources we have been given is determined by our ability to use those resources among “the least of these.”

Maybe the Return on Investment in the Kingdom of God has to do with how much love, empathy, money, time, and talents we use in investing in people—which is the same as investing in Jesus, is it not?

What a different model on Church Growth.

If our return on investment is determined by how much we invest in others how would this change how we use our time, talents and money?

For one thing, we may not be so careless with what we have.

If we were to see our stuff—our money, our time, our families, everything we have—as being given to us to use in the work of God’s Kingdom, we might be more careful with what we buy and how we use what we purchase.

We might also use a different measuring stick to define success.

How do we define God’s blessing on the church today?

More people, bigger buildings, better programs?

Those are ways that we can measure growth.

Certainly we want more people.

But is that all there is to it?

I've heard it said that, “Grace is a vibrant and growing congregation.”

We are growing as a congregation here at Church of the Saviour.

But we do have a long way to go.

It would be awesome to have this building packed out every Sunday morning and all through the week, but what if God is measuring our success by completely different qualifications?

What if success in God’s Kingdom is more people being fed, less discrimination against other human beings, people growing more and more in love for God and neighbor, less hate, taking care of the lonely or lost neighbor next door, ministering to people living with terminal illnesses, helping out at the local food bank, giving what we can of our income to Church or going way above and sending some money to Episcopal Relief and Development for projects around the world.

What if success in God’s Kingdom is more about those things and less about us.

In Romans, Paul urges us—due to God’s mercy—to offer ourselves as living sacrifices.

That means we give all that we are and all that we have to God.

That is success.

That is the goal.

That is the measuring stick.

“What do we do about Jesus?”

We give Jesus everything.

And we do this through loving other people with Christ’s unconditional love—no matter whether they are rich, poor, straight, gay, black, white, illegal immigrants, US citizens, male, female…you name it.

And we love them, not only by what we say to them or about them—but by what we do for them.

In our Epistle Lesson from Paul's letter to the Church at Ephesus. Paul says, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you.”

So, if we have faith and love towards all the saints. And by saints that means all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. Then we are doing what God wishes us to do.

This is the measuring stick of success.

Love towards others means that we do things that we wouldn't do otherwise.
Suppose you see a brother or a sister who has no food or clothing, and you say, ‘Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well’—but then you don’t give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?
You see, faith by itself isn’t enough.
Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.”

Is your faith alive or is it dead and useless?

God measures our success by completely different qualifications than that of the world.

Are more people being fed, are less people dying of AIDS, and are families being restored?
This is a very different understanding of what we should expect to receive from investing in God’s Kingdom.

It’s not a selfish thing—it’s about everyone.

What a reason to invest.

The main point of the parable of the weeds that I mentioned earlier is this: “Who knows where God may be at work?”

And the best way to answer that question may be this: “God is at work when people act like Jesus.”

And we act like Jesus when we are bringing “good news to the poor,” proclaiming “release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,” and are helping to “let the oppressed go free”.

We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus in a lost and dying world.

Jesus invested in people—so should we!!!

In Ezekiel, it says, “I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak.” How do we do this? I believe we do this when we...

Act justly.
Love with mercy.
Walk humbly.

These are actions.

Do these actions define you and I—do they define the Church of the Saviour?

And you and I—we are the Church of the Saviour—whether we are in here worshiping, studying the Bible, or out in the world working with others one on one at work, at school, in the community, at our neighbor’s house, in our own home.

Our faith and our actions cannot become two separate expressions of our commitment to God.

We can’t have one without the other.

We’ve all heard stories of leaders in the church who seem upstanding on Sundays but go home and are anything but upstanding.

Or what about those who praise God in church only to cheat customers and abuse employees in the workplace?

In this morning’s parable of the Sheep and Goats there are consequences for not caring for those at the margins.

What we do about Jesus has everything to do with how we treat those in need.

Did you give a cup of cold water, a hot meal, clothing, a place to stay, a bit of your time to sit and listen to those who couldn’t possibly return the favor?

The answer to the question of: “What do we do about Jesus” begins with the person sitting next to you, behind you or in front of you…
…it begins with the people who live next door to us or down the street.

It begins with those who live in our own home, and it expands outward.

“Master, what are you talking about?
When did we see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink?
And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?
Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling you the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’”

May it be so!

Amen.

The Foolish Bridesmaids

2009-01-09T06:40:00.000-08:00

Painting of Jesus at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa

This is a sermon I gave at Church of the Saviour, Clermont, Iowa on November 9, 2008. The basis for the message is Matthew 25:1-13.

Today we heard Joshua say that we should “Serve the Lord” and then we heard Paul telling the Church in Thessaloníki that Jesus will return one day. The Gospel is from Matthew and Jesus combines those two ideas. We have been reading our way through Matthew this year. As Jesus told this parable in chapter 25 he was already well into a lengthy explanation of events surrounding his second coming in chapter 24. Jesus had spoke of his death and resurrection before, but this concerns his second coming.

Jesus has said in Matthew 24 that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” However he has also said that “no-one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the son, but only the Father.”
Friends, that includes any human beings even religious leaders. Only the Father knows.

As part of the lead up to this parable Jesus has told his disciples to “be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”

Nearly two thousand years later, as we hear these words of Jesus, how do we react? Are we ready? Are we prepared?

As we hear Jesus speaking through this parable; what do we hear, and how do we react?

It is very fashionable for some in the Christian community to point out that we are living in the ‘last days’ or the ‘end times’, and that Jesus will soon return. That may or may not be true. However, this parable was especially poignant for St. Matthew’s first readers. Matthew wrote this down and it helped the church; it helped because in 50 or 60 AD the early church was starting to say things like this: “Where is Jesus? He said he would return ‘soon’. Where is Jesus? Is he coming back? When is he coming back?”

Jesus spoke to his disciples then, and speaks to us now, saying this:

1) I am coming back.
2) I may return much later than you expect.
3) I will return at a time when many least expect it.
4) Are you ready, are you prepared for my return?
5) Be ready!

The parable of the ten virgins asks us to consider which ‘group of five’ best describes us.

At the time of Christ in Palestine, marriage rituals were a lot more elaborate than we have at present. Once a groom had paid the wedding price to the father of the bride a period of a year would elapse. During that time the groom would go back to his home and prepare it for the arrival of his bride. When the right moment had arrived he would set off to the bride's house to bring her 'home'. A great procession would be the order of the day and everyone in the procession would have their own torch or lamp. To be in the procession without a lamp or torch meant that you were a gatecrasher to the wedding celebrations and you would be locked out when the groom reached his home.

So there are ten young Jewish girls who are waiting for the bridegroom. They are first century Jewish bridesmaids or bridal attendants but their job right now is waiting not for the bride but for the bridegroom. When he arrived they would walk with him, carrying flaming torches as the bridegroom took his bride home.

Five of the ten are prepared. They have plenty of oil to last. If the Bridegroom is a long time in coming they are well prepared. If he does not come for a long time yet they will still be prepared when he does come.

But five of the ten are not prepared. They only have enough oil to last a very short time. They are not prepared. If the bridegroom is a long time in coming then when he does return they will not be ready.

The bridegroom shows up at midnight. All of the ten are asleep. Life goes on. We need sleep. In fact I can personally assure you that sleep is our friend. This parable is not about staying awake. We are not supposed to be always awake with eyes ’glued’ open. Those who were well prepared were asleep. No, this parable asks whether we are ready. Are you prepared for the return of Jesus, the bridegroom of the church?

Which set of bridesmaids describes you?

It is not necessarily helpful to try to work out whether the ‘oil’ in this parable actually means ‘this’ or ‘that’; whether having enough oil ‘means’ regular bible reading or having faith or doing good works. Far more likely is that Jesus goes on to explore our state of readiness in next weeks Gospel lesson about the Parable of the Talents.

Like the plot of a decent book or movie the story develops. Jesus goes on to talk about what we each do with the time and talents he gives to us.

So are we ready? Are we prepared?
The return of Jesus is not something we can push to the back of our minds thinking it’ll never happen. Because it will happen someday. It may even happen before I start my next sentence....

OK, so Jesus has decided to wait a while longer....

But please remember this:

That our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ is critical.
That living life in relationship with Jesus is critical.
That loving God and loving our neighbor is critical; there are no other commandments greater than these!

Are you ready? Are you prepared?

Let’s pray.

Dear Lord,

We know that we are like the foolish bridesmaids and that we aren't ready. May you help everyone of us here today to be wise and learn to be prepared for the time that you return. In your Holy name, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Are You Serving?

2009-01-01T20:06:00.000-08:00

St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Maquoketa, Iowa

This is the sermon I gave at the Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on October 26, 2008. The basis for the sermon is 1 Thessalonians 2:1-16.

Bill is a 20 year old college Student. He’s been active in church for 5 or 6 years, he got active because of his youth group. He volunteers as a leader of the youth group on Friday nights. His friends call him Blue because he has red hair.

Violet is a 77 year old retiree. She’s still energetic enough, in bursts at least, to continue her ministry in the church, by doing lots of pastoral care.

Ruby is a little over 29. At least that’s all she says. She’s an IT specialist. She leads a small group and is involved with the outreach ministry in her local church.
Jack is a father of 3 teenagers, an accountant, and in his late 40’s. He’s just old enough to be considered a baby-boomer but young enough to think of himself as a Gen-Xer. He’s a leader of the men’s group at his church as well as being a member of vestry and one of the small groups in the church.

All of these people have something in common. They’re all people with a ministry in God’s Church. And they’re all people who want to know how to serve God better, how to serve God’s church better.

So for them a letter like 1 Thessalonians, where Paul spends a lot of time defending himself by explaining what motivated him in his preaching of the gospel can be a great help.
So what I want to do today is to think about what those four people, along with us, can learn from Paul’s example that will help them in serving others with the gospel.
You can make a fairly good guess from the things Paul says in the first few verses of chapter 2 what the accusations were that these people were making. "He was a weakling. He ran away at the first sign of trouble. We haven’t seen or heard of him since. Obviously the only thing he was interested in was having us support him while he swanned around looking important. And as soon as a bit of opposition arose he headed for the hills; ran off in the dark of night! He was more interested in his own safety than your welfare."
Well, that was probably something like what they were complaining about, because here’s how he answers it.

First: He appeals to their memory of what happened.
He says: "You yourselves know, brothers and sisters." Notice how that phrase, "You know" or "You remember" is repeated over and over again: Sometimes when we’re the object of false accusations we get carried away with defending ourselves rather than stopping and asking a couple of simple questions, like: "Are there any grounds to these accusations?" "Do others see things the way this person sees them?" You see, the accusation may totally unfounded. It may all be in the mind of the accuser. If we look at the facts of the situation we may see that the way we acted was OK.
That’s what Paul says here. He says "Think back to what actually happened. Was my coming to you a waste of time? Was my message just hot air? Did I run at the first sign of danger, leaving you without my support? Of course not. In fact if you think back to when I came to you, it was just after I’d been thrown into jail in Philippi, put in the stocks, beaten, humiliated. But that didn’t stop me from preaching the gospel to you, facing the possibility of further opposition, further suffering. In fact I preached with great courage in the face of that opposition."
What’s more the way he spoke to them was with openness and frankness. That’s the idea behind that word ’declare’. There was nothing underhanded or manipulative in the way he presented the gospel. There was no deceit or impure motives or trickery in the way he spoke. That’s why he can repeatedly call on their memory of what happened. This is a lesson for us isn’t it? Let’s make sure that we minister in God’s church with such an openness and integrity that we can look back later on and say "You know what we were like. You know the way we lived among you. You know the sorts of people we proved to be." And in case you think you can get away with some lower standard than this, remember that people notice what you do as much as what you say, if not more so. But secondly,
He explains his own motivation
In fact he comes up with four metaphors, four pictures to do this.
A Steward
He says "we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the message of the gospel." He speaks because God has given him that charge. God has entrusted him with this great treasure the way the owner of a property might entrust it to a steward. So not only does he not do it for personal gain of some sort, that’s the negative, he does it because God has entrusted him with it. He’s someone whom God has tested and approved.
The idea is of an apprentice who spends the first years of his training being tested on the range of skills required. Or a teacher who goes out on teaching rounds and gets an assessment from the school they work in. Or a medical intern who works under a medical registrar and receives an assessment at the end of their rounds. Once they get through that assessment, once they’re considered skilled enough or trustworthy enough they’re allowed to practice unsupervised. Well now, Paul says, he’s been through his basic training and passed with flying colors He’s received the approval of God and so he’s entrusted with the responsibility of taking the message to others.
So, far from doing it out of the desire for personal gain, his real motivation is to please his master, that is, to please God who’s continually testing his heart.
Now we talk a bit about the need to share the Gospel here at Church of the Saviour. You may be sick of hearing about it in fact. But here’s one reason why we keep on talking about it: because God has entrusted this message not only to Paul, but to us as well. When Jesus told his disciples to go into all the world and preach the Gospel, he also told them to teach others to obey everything that he’d commanded them. That of course included the command to go into all the world. So we also have that call, that responsibility. We too, are stewards of the Gospel.
How can Bill the college student serve the Church? How can we? By being a good steward of the Gospel. Of course, that may mean God will tests our hearts as well? So we need to think about what he’ll find there. Will it be the desire to please him, or the desire to please ourselves? Will it be the desire to see others come to faith, to a living knowledge of Jesus Christ, or the desire to not have our comfortable lives upset?
I’m not asking this to worry you, or to make you afraid, but to encourage you to take seriously the responsibility that comes from having been given the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ, from having heard the gospel that sets us free.
Having said that, Paul then goes on to another image, another model from which he draws inspiration.
A Mother
He says: "But we were gentle among you, like a nurse tenderly caring for her own children. So deeply do we care for you that we are determined to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us." I doubt that you could think of anyone who cares for a child more than a nursing mother. And the sort of care that a mother gives her baby is a selfless care. She doesn’t do it out of any ulterior motive. There’s no sense that she’s going to get something out of it. In fact it’s the very helplessness of a baby that makes caring for it so imperative. There’s a difference in the way she loves a little baby and the way she’ll love them when they’re 16 years old, for example. Both will be examples of motherly love, but one will go out of it’s way to do whatever the child needs, the other, if it’s wise love, might tell the child to wake up to them self and start acting their age, or start taking responsibility for them self.
The other element in this picture is the way you don’t expect a mother to be looked after by her child. Rather it’s the other way around. So too, Paul made sure that he wasn’t a burden to those he ministered to. He worked as a tent maker in order to support himself while he preached the Gospel, or he used funds sent to him from other churches so he didn’t need to rely on new converts for his support. He says he might have insisted on his rights as an apostle of Christ, but he exchanged that authority for a mother’s gentleness. And that involved sharing not only financial support, but his whole self because they were so dear to him.
One of the things that are most satisfying in Christian ministry is the close relationships that develop with those among whom you minister. I’m sure if you speak to Marva later about her experience in Swaziland when she returns, I'm sure that she’ll tell you how wonderful it was to share in those people’s lives, to discover people who had become dear to her in just a few days. This is the sad thing about those who refuse to share the Gospel with others: they rarely have the joy of sharing new life with people. The joy of motherhood is only experienced by having a child. I can’t tell you what it’s like. I can only tell you what being a father is like. But by all accounts it’s a pretty good experience, for most mothers at least. Likewise it’s a great experience to see people come to faith and grow in that faith through our ministry.
How can Violet the retiree serve the church or her small group? By caring for those in it the way a mother cares for her young child; by nurturing them, feeding them, loving them with the love of the one who brought them into this world.

Thirdly, Paul likens himself to a father and here there are again a number of elements involved.
First he says "You remember our labor and toil, brothers and sisters; we worked night and day, so that we might not burden any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God." Like the traditional father he’s acted as the breadwinner of the family. He’s worked hard to provide for his children.
We know from 2 Corinthians that the Macedonian churches suffered from extreme poverty. So it would have been an incredible burden on them to have to support Paul and Silas and Timothy while they were there. But instead Paul decided to work to support himself and his ministry, just as a father goes out to work to support his household.
But his action as a father is more than just that. In fact if that were all a father did he wouldn’t actually be much of a father would he? No, Paul acts like a father in the example he gives, through his purity and righteousness of behavior. Again he’s referring back to the question of his motives. He hasn’t acted with ulterior motives. Rather he’s acted like a father, having only his children’s interests in mind, showing them how to live as disciples of Christ.
Again, the way he operated was by "urging and encouraging you and pleading that you lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory." In those days the father was the one whose job was to educate his children, to train them in the family business. So just as a father might do this by urging and encouraging and pleading with his child to do better and especially to lead a life worthy of the family, so Paul has urged them to lead a life worthy of God.
How can Jack the accountant serve the church or his men’s group? By living a life of integrity; by being a leader whose Godly life is an example to others; by urging and encouraging others to live a life that’s worthy of God the way a father encourages his children.
Before we go on to Paul’s final metaphor let me just say that it’s interesting that Paul takes on himself both those traditional pictures of parental roles. Some people have read into passages like this a theology of parenting that assigns one role to women and one to men, but Paul in fact takes on both roles in his own ministry. So perhaps he’s indicating the fact that those traditional roles aren’t fixed; that it’s possible for a father to feed and nurture his children, for a mother to teach and encourage and urge her children to greater effort. Anyway that’s probably a discussion for another time.

Finally, Paul describes himself as one who proclaims the word of God. That is, he comes as a herald passing on a message from the king. The word gospel in fact was used for proclamations of great events brought by heralds from the king or the emperor. So when he says "When you received the word of God that you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word but as what it really is, God’s word, which is also at work in you believers" he’s reminding them that he came as God’s herald, as a prophet sent from God to bring them a message of great news from the king.
Sometimes Christians get embarrassed at the thought that we have this message that must sound so strange to people. We imagine what they must think when we talk about God appearing as a human being, or Jesus dying then rising again. And we might even think we look foolish presenting this message, let alone wondering how it will ever have an impact on our rationalistic culture. But here’s the great assurance for us. We’re simply acting as God’s messengers, God’s heralds. And the message we’re presenting is one of great importance to those who hear it. It’s the sort of message that should be accompanied by a fanfare of trumpets. A new king is reigning and that king calls his people to return to him. Some people may think we’re nuts or ignore us as being irrelevant. Some may even treat us badly, as they did Paul and the converts in Thessalonica. But this is God’s message and, as we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, he already has those he’s chosen, waiting to hear the call, waiting for the herald to appear and announce this message from the king.
So how can Ruby the IT specialist serve the church? By proclaiming the message of the gospel; by being a herald of the King, by bringing new people into God’s kingdom or encouraging others to do so.
Whether you see yourself as a steward of a great treasure in the Gospel, a mother, caring for, feeding, nurturing, her children, a father, providing for, teaching, encouraging, urging his children to live Godly lives, or a herald announcing great news of a king whose reign is forever, the way to serve the church, the way to serve God in the Church, is to build it up by proclaiming the Gospel, by helping those who come to faith to grow, and by encouraging them to become mature believers who in turn can bring others into the kingdom.

Amen.

Come to the Party!

2008-11-26T06:07:00.000-08:00

The capitol dome in Madison, Wisconsin.

OK, so I haven't been updating this blog like I thought I would so I will be trying to catch up.

This is a sermon that I gave at The Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on October 12, 2008. The basis for the message is Matthew 22:1-22:14.

Jesus says "The Kingdom of God is like a party", and that sounds like good news, especially if you are a lover of parties.

Personally, I am not a great lover of parties. Indeed, I generally dread it when I am invited to a party. Questions immediately come to mind: ’who else is going to be there?’, ’do I have to get dressed up?’, ’can I get out of it?’

Now just so you don't think I'm really the world's most boring person, I did enjoy Fiesta Lopez that we had here in August.

Parties are meant to be fun of course, but we all know that some parties are just a hard to get through. If you have ever watched “Keeping up Appearances” on public TV or on BBC, you would recognize that Hyacinth Bucket's candlelight suppers are that type of party. It is not the sort of party where you stand around drinking beer and telling bad jokes. This is the sort of party where you dress well, speak appropriately, and make sure you pass the port in the right direction. These are the sorts of parties I really try to avoid.

Jesus says, "The Kingdom of God is like a party". What sort of party is it?

The party Jesus is talking about is a royal wedding party, which means that it’s a rather significant party, and it starts out with a more exclusive guest list than you’d find at any of Hyacinth's dinner parties. All the important people have been invited, the nobles, the clergy, politicians and legal people, community leaders, business people, the movers and shakers from across the king’s domain, but, strangely, none of them want to come.

The king is a bit taken aback by this, so he reissues his invitation a little more forcefully, lest anyone should have misunderstood the exact nature of the party, or perhaps missed the fact that not attending was not really an option.

But still the invited guests just don’t take the king seriously at all. Y'know, one woman has an appointment with her hairdresser that day. Another guy had that day set aside to go looking for a new car. And some of the invited guests got so annoyed at being bothered again by the king that they set the dogs onto his messengers, and some of these messengers were even killed.

So the king is now royally ticked off, and he sends the army out, and they work through the same guest list, butchering each of the invited guests who decided that they had better things to do than go to the kings party. And then the army goes through and burns the villages where each of these people lived.

When the king’s servants return from their grisly work they find that their master, oddly enough, is still in the mood for a party. So he sends his messengers out again, but this time, instead of sending them out to the kingdom's corridors of power, which all have now been burnt to the ground, he sends them anywhere and everywhere, telling them "invite everybody" - rich and poor, black and white, slave and free, young and old, male and female, wise and stupid, gay and straight, good and bad. And this time, not surprisingly perhaps, it seems that nobody takes the king’s invitation lightly.

And so the story seems to be concluding with a happy scene of a palace filled with guests enjoying a great party, despite the lingering smell of the recently scorched villages in the background. Everybody appears to be having a good time, and the king is there, strolling amongst his invited guests, greeting each of them, regardless of their status or station in life, until he finds one character who didn’t bother to get dressed properly, and he says ’buddy, where is your tux?’ And this guy, who has come straight from work and is still in his grungy work clothes, doesn’t know what to say, so the king calls the security guards, who slap the guy around a bit and then throw him out into the parking lot, where we all know that men weep and gnash their teeth.

And Jesus says, "the Kingdom of God is just like that, many are called, but few are chosen."

That is the one barb at the end, that I have trouble with. A man comes to the wedding who isn’t wearing wedding clothes, and he is thrown out and then we are told that many are called but few are chosen.

Why?

St Augustine suggests that the reason was that the king has provided wedding clothes for all who came to the wedding banquet.

He has not only invited everyone to the feast but he has provided the clothes to go with it.

The man who was thrown out, was thrown out because he rejected the king’s festal robes.

Now, this is not my favorite parable. This isn’t even my favorite ’parable of the wedding feast’. There’s another version of this parable in Luke, where a lot less people get killed and beaten up.

Luke says ’Go out at once into the streets and lanes of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame... Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.’ (Luke 14:21-23)

The parable in Luke is told as part of Jesus’ explanation as to why he hangs about with so many social misfits. In Matthew though the parable is delivered as part of Jesus’ tirade against the establishment, and it is the third volley of a triple barreled shotgun.

In quick succession ,Jesus comes out with the ’parable of the two sons’ (one son who says the right thing and one son who does the right thing), ’the parable of the bad tenants’ (who refuse to pay the rent to the owner and end up murdering the owners son), and then this ’parable of the great party’ -where the party celebrations are set against this backdrop of violence.

"The Kingdom of God is like a party," says Jesus, but what sort of party is this? It’s a very serious party. It’s the sort of party that makes Hyacinth's dinner party look like a kegger. This is not the sort of party where you turn up when you like and come as you are. This is the sort of party where you turn up at the right place and at the right time and where you come dressed appropriately, and where, if you decide to stay home to work on your sermon, you do so at your own risk.

What sort of party is this? It’s a serious party. And perhaps the even more important question here is ’what sort of king is this who is throwing this party?’ And he seems to be a serious king, who in the end is going to demand people’s respect.

And there are lots of ways of getting on the wrong side of this king:

Ignore his party invitation. That will tick him off.
Murder his messengers. That will really make him mad.
Turn up to his wedding banquet dressed like a slob. That will work too.

And I’m sure we can think of other ways that we've seen people being rude at a party that would make him upset too.

There are plenty of ways of upsetting the king. There seems to be just one way of making him happy. Come to the party, and come on the king’s own terms.

A guy called David Randolph spoke about a time when he was in Milan, Italy, and was watching a circus parade moving through the streets. Suddenly one of the elephants veered off and marched into a church. The church doors were large, and were open because of the summer heat. So the elephant wandered up the aisle, trumpeted a bit, swung her trunk around and then headed back to the parade. Randolph said that it occurred to him at that moment, the extent to which his own spiritual life was embodied in the behavior of this elephant, lurching into church, making a few noises, and then resuming his place in the parade.

In the end, the Kingdom of God is serious business, and the invitation of the King, to come and join his party, is to be taken seriously.

Sermon on Camp Out Sunday

2008-10-05T19:24:00.000-07:00

This is the sermon that I gave at Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on September 14, 2008. It was on this weekend that the Church of the Saviour hosted a diocesan wide youth camp out with nearly 50 youth attending.

It is we, 'Christians', who know the magnitude of our debt to God. As we stand before the Cross of our Lord and Savior we know how much it has cost God for our redemption. We know that the cost of our redemption cannot be measured in terms of gold or silver, for it has cost a life, the life of the one and only son of God. So this parable from Matthew, addressed to Peter, is addressed to us. It is not a prescription for others to take to make the world a better place - it is fairly and squarely directed at us and all who call themselves 'Christians'.

It tells us how readily God forgives us - and by extension all people, for there is no distinction between us if we don't forgive others and others who don't forgive either.

The parable tells us that we are not to spend our lives repaying our debt to God as each of the servants pleads for time to do. God forgives and forgets. God remits our sins entirely. We owe God nothing in return - provided only that we do likewise to others.

Now as I've gone through my life being exposed to many different types of churches – it has often come across to me that God must be finicky about worship - it has to be done in a correct way or it will be entirely unacceptable. In the 'high-church' type of liturgy the only kosher worship is where the priest uses vestments and there are 'bells and smells'. In the so called 'low church' type of worship it is where the minister's emphasis is on the Bible and preaching. In the charismatic or pentecostal side of the church the emphasis is on the sincerity of the praying by the people in the congregation during worship. Each is valid in its own right, but many times each looks to others as deficient – that others owe God something that their own members don't. The 'god' they worship is essentially unforgiving towards others.

How have we have turned around this Gospel passage to avoid it speaking to us? We only assume it is speaking to others.

In each and every church that I've ever seen, that church has been proud of their building, of their people, and of their programs. And one gets the impression that the only difficulty that they face is that more people don't join in. And this is where the priest or pastor comes in. It is his or her job to get others involved - not to change anything but to admire the building, to delight in the welcoming committee, the efforts to raise money, attract young people, have fellowship groups and bible studies. And, surprise, surprise, suddenly God has got nothing to say to these seemingly devout people - the only words are for those outside of their walls.

In a conversation I had a while back a non denominational church pastor was admiring the system other denominations have (including the Episcopal Church) of having rules and regulations so that clergy could avoid stepping on people's toes. In his church the rules weren't written down so one spent time wondering how to proceed. I think that the reality is that changing anything, anywhere is essentially forbidden.

Sadly, of course, often parishioners have spent their lives 'busting their guts' for the church. To suggest change is perhaps to imply that they haven't done enough, or what they have done is wrong. They have been fed a tradition of 'do it this way and you'll be saved'. I know from my own experience how difficult it is to free myself from this and to learn to think for myself and discover my own spirituality. I would not claim to have achieved this yet, now or at any time in my life. In many ways this is why I study the lectionary and write sermons, even when I won't have a chance to give them anywhere. They are not actually for anyone else. They enable me to extricate myself from simply not going through the motions to an appreciation that God loves me without theological, moral or academic credentials. My sermons to others are, I pray, how God speaks to me.

I was interested to hear recently a radio program on historical denial - like the denial of the holocaust. And I suddenly realized that this is perhaps why I continue to kick myself for the stupid things I did and continue to do - even though I know that God has long ago forgiven and forgotten them. It is a far more healthy place to be to have sinned and been forgiven and continue to berate myself, than to be in denial - suggesting that the things I did were someone else's fault or didn't happen at all. Denial is downright dangerous.

So too the church has to recognize that it has got things wrong in the past and continues to do some things wrong some times in the present. People are not saved by doing things by the church's rule book. Salvation is about how we are loved as we are, and how loved other people are as they are, not because we or they have necessarily followed the rules.

So difference is basic to the Christian community, as it is for the community at large. So if God is so forgiving of difference within the Christian community, why would God be less forgiving of difference outside the Christian community? Indeed if forgiveness of difference is fundamental to our faith as these words of Jesus suggest, why should we restrict them to members inside the Christian community – where, presumably, there is less cause of difference and so less need to forgive?

So is God unforgiving of others if they call on God by a different name to us? Do other people owe us anything if they don't worship in precisely the same manner as we do? And if they do owe us something aren't we bound to forgive and forget any debt, on pain of having to pay back to God all we owe?

It seems that each and every time people find themselves face to face with the Almighty, they fall flat on their faces, and each and every time God lifts them to their feet. Our primal dignity, to stand before the Almighty and to think for ourselves is not taken from anyone. God does not want people to grovel eternally before the divine presence, and God certainly doesn't want us to spend our lives trying to repay all we owe the divine - this would indeed be hell here on earth. God wants us to forget the times when we have offended God and get on with loving our brothers and sisters. God wants us to forgive and accept the differences of those around us - the differences between genders, sexual orientations, ethnic, racial, and religious differences. For it is only in doing this that we can claim to have a Gospel for all of humanity and we stand any chance of avoiding the fate of the unforgiving servant in our reading of Matthew for today. Indeed in the light of these words - the acceptance and forgiveness of difference is the only rule we have to follow.

Amen.

Of Rocks and Blocks

2008-09-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Rock outcropping near Colorado Springs, Colorado

This is the sermon I gave at Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa on August 31, 2008.

Have you noticed? Over recent weeks quite a few of the readings have featured Peter in some shape or form. From walking on water to the recognition of who Christ was and today the rock who Jesus said Peter was became the rock which caused Jesus to stumble. What had Peter said that made Jesus react in the way he did? The answer lies in what Jesus said to Peter following his remarks on how he cannot let Jesus suffer. “You think as men think not as God thinks”. Words don’t come easy and when they do they can often be wrong, misunderstood, misinterpreted or be taken out of context.

Peter, understandably, was appalled to think that the Messiah, the Christ must be put to death. We have the benefit of knowing the complete story. We know that this passage of scripture falls between the miracles and was Jesus was teaching.

It must have been like doing a jigsaw puzzle but without the picture. Peter’s reaction was natural. Kings don’t suffer for their people, it is the people who suffer for the king. Perhaps Peter was waiting for Jesus to tell him how he planned to overthrow and oust the Romans, but this is Jesus standing and speaking on true authority that a true disciple and follower of God is also expected to suffer. This will involve self-denial, putting God and other people first. Jesus, when in the Garden of Gethsememe was not looking forward to dying on the cross but he prayed “Not my will but yours will be done”. As I said earlier, words don’t come easy.

It is not popular, it is not easy but God calls and equips us to do it in the power of the Holy Spirit. But we have to rely upon His spirit and not our own.

There are times in our lives when words fail us, but it is not just finding the words that is important, words without meaning are worthless, words without understanding and action are worthless. The message that we need to understand, and understand clearly, that God chose Jesus’s death on the cross as the only way by which all humankind could be restored to a right relationship. It is a way that would have been unthinkable to a first century Jew like Peter. It is a way that can seem barbaric and unjust to people today.

We have to give our life to Jesus in order to gain a true life. Not existing but living it to the full knowing that we wake up each day with God as our best friend.

Our life is precious, priceless, and more important than owning the whole world. We cannot give anything to buy our soul - the only price that could buy us has already been paid by Jesus.

When we fully recognize this, it shows that we really understand the lengths that God has gone to in saving us. This shows that we have given up our lives in order to gain life. This life is eternal life, eternal not only in its length but also its breadth. Eternal life is not only everlasting it is a quality of life, a life in the right relationship with God. A life where one day there will be no more death of mourning, weeping or pain because the old order of things has passed.

In the previous chapter of Matthew we had Peter being described by Jesus as a rock on which I will build my church. Now he goes from being a solid rock to being a stumbling block, from being a hero to being a zero. How do we see ourselves? Building blocks or stumbling blocks?

In todays reading of Paul's letter to the Church in Rome, Paul reminds us to do things that will make us building blocks, by holding fast to what is good, blessing all people whether friends or enemies, and overcoming evil with good.

So that’s how Christ sees us as building blocks. What about stumbling blocks? Living for yourself, looking after number one. Living for self is an attitude of seeking yourself first, Jesus warned many times about the fool hardiness of living for self. Most of us here today would see ourselves as building blocks, but like all building blocks they have to be maintained and made sure that they are strong enough to withstand all weight that’s placed upon it and the various storms that will confront it.

Peter was the one who found himself with the awkward questions. I believe that there is a bit of Peter in everybody. It always seemed that Jesus was forever correcting the disciples on the way they saw his messiahship. But after Jesus ascended; the acts of the apostles are full of instances where the disciples went around healing and expanding Christ’s ministry. But here's the miracle—Peter STAYED. Stumbling block or building block, or both—it doesn't matter, because Peter stayed, in spite of the fact that he had just endured a public chewing out in front of his closest friends and a total loss of face. I wonder if the disciples were here this morning, if Peter was right in front of us, I wonder what we would say to them, how would we question them, is that what you really meant Peter? Were you trying to subvert God or protect Him. And how does that make Peter any different than the rest of us. My will, not the will of God whom I serve—isn't that a natural reaction when a loved one gets cancer, or loses a job, or experiences heartache?

There’s a prayer I remember learning when I was growing up and I've found out that it’s been turned into a hymn, if you have a look in your hymnals it’s hymn number 694. It says:

God be in my head

and in my understanding;

God be in mine eyes

and in my looking;

God be in my mouth

and in my speaking;

God be in my heart

and in my thinking

God be at mine end

and at my departing

And it sums up for me in the way in which we channel God into our lives. Most of us will probably never find ourselves in the exact position that Peter did. But there will be countless times when we will find ourselves asking my will or yours Lord? I wonder how we will respond. We hope that we will make the right decision.

Jesus showed the way forward by living and demonstrating a way of life that most had never thought of let alone seen. The challenge that Christ set the disciples becomes our challenge.

So today let that challenge become a reality for us.

Amen

Who Is Jesus Sermon

2008-08-28T06:33:00.001-07:00

This is the sermon I gave at Church of the Saviour Episcopal Church in Clermont, Iowa on August 24, 2008. The question I asked was: Who is Jesus?

In todays readings names have a central role. In the reading from Exodus, the story is about how the descendants of Jacob become the twelve tribes of Israel and how they become enslaved to the Egyptians. One of those descendants is a baby boy who is put in a basket by his mother so he escapes death by the hands of the Egyptians. Well, the little one is found by none other than the daughter of Pharaoh, who will raise him as her child, and she names him Moses because she “drew him out of the water”. The name Moses is very significant because it is a royal Egyptian name, the names of the Pharaohs themselves often have Moses as part of their name because the Pharaohs were considered gods and their power as a god came from the Nile river, from the water. Without the water of the Nile, Egypt would cease to exist. So it is very significant that this Hebrew boy, who was to be a slave, becomes part of the royal household of Egypt and then eventually leads the Hebrews out of Egypt on their journey to the promised land.

In the Romans reading, Paul says we all have names: prophet, minister, teacher, exhorter, giver, leader; to each according to their ability.

Then in the gospel of Matthew, Jesus asks of his disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God."

I want to ask two questions:

1. What did Peter mean?
2. What does this mean to us today?

1. What did Peter mean when he said “ You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”

The word Christ is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah – which simply means God’s anointed One

There were three types of people who would be anointed:

1. Prophets
2. Priests
3. Kings
And in Jesus we find all three.

However, the Jews were expecting a Messiah who would exercise God’s rule over God’s people.

But Jesus wasn’t the all conquering hero that the Jews were expecting, similar to Judas Maccabeus who had kicked the occupying powers out in 167 BC.

Rather he was the suffering servant that Isaiah spoke about.

The last prophet in the Old Testament Malachi prophesied three hundred years before Jesus was born and said this:
"See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty. (Mal 3:1)
Peter recognized Jesus as the Messiah – the one sent by God.

But he recognized more. That Jesus wasn’t just human, but that he was divine too.

For a Jew like St Peter this was, this was a seismic shift in his thinking, to call Jesus the Son of God.

All his life Peter had been taught that there is one God and never to worship a man as God.

It was one of the reasons which caused both the Jewish and Christian faiths to clash with Roman authority – because emperor worship was the touchstone of loyalty to the empire.

And the city where Jesus asked the disciples the question was not insignificant either. For he asked them the question in Caesarea Philippi, a city about 25 miles northeast of Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown.

Caesarea Philippi was know for its plurality of religions. In that city alone there were 14 temples dedicated to the worship of Ba’al.

And high up on a prominent mountain peak you could see the ultimate blasphemy for a Jew – a temple dedicated to the worship of Caesar.
The famous Bible commentator William Barclay put it all in perspective:

Here indeed is a dramatic picture. Here is a homeless, penniless Galilean carpenter, with twelve very ordinary men around him.

At the moment the orthodox are actually plotting and planning to destroy him as a dangerous heretic.

He stands in an area littered with the temples of Syrian gods; in a place where the ancient Greek gods looked down; in a place where the history of Israel crowded upon the minds of men; where the white marble splendor of the home of Caesar-worship dominated the landscape and compelled the eye.

And there – of all places – this amazing carpenter stands and asks men who they believe him to be, and expects the answer, the Son of God.

So what does that mean for us today?

If Jesus is God’s anointed One and he is divine, then we need to take what he says seriously

Jesus made some startling and very exclusive claims.

For example in the Gospel of John he said: “I am the Way the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6)

I often hear people say that “All religions are basically the same – they all worship the same God”.

But I don't necessarily agree. Because Jesus doesn’t leave us that option.

If Christianity is all about following Christ – rather than the common misconception that a Christian is simply someone who is nice and good - then universalism (that is the belief that all religions will bring us to God) is not a Christian option. This does not invalidate other religions, or lead us to judge them, but it gives their path over to God's grace and leads us on a radically different journey.

Why? Because of who Jesus is.

In today’s Gospel reading the question is asked:

Who do you think Jesus is?.

There were a number of answers

Firstly, we have the crowd’s answer in our Bible passage today.

The disciples in answering the question replied:

Some say; John the Baptist, other Elijah and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

Why Elijah. The Jews steeped in the Old Testament knew the prophecy from Malachi that Elijah must come before the Messiah would return.

Why John the Baptist? Many thought John the Baptist was the return of Elijah – indeed Jesus himself announces John as a prophet like Elijah.
Why Jeremiah: Because Jesus, like Jeremiah “was a prophet of judgment, declaring God’s impending destruction on his own nation and therefore opposed and persecuted by its leaders” (RT France )

But let us also look at some other answers given over the centuries by famous figures in recent history.

Consider Albert Schweitzer the famous theologian and one of the 113 Swiss Nobel Prize winners; who says, if we don't believe Jesus is Christ, then he was a deluded fanatic who futilely threw away his life in blind devotion to a mad dream.

Then there is the famous writer, George Bernard Shaw, who was also an atheist who said

“Jesus was a man who was sane until Peter hailed him as the Christ and who then became a monomaniac…his delusion is a very common delusion among the insane…”

Or if you ask the question to a practicing Muslim and you will get the answer that Jesus was simply a great prophet , second only to Mohamed and that he was not divine.

But there have been other answers.

Such as CS Lewis

And in his book Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis made this poignant statement,

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher.

He would either be a lunatic--on the level with a
man who says he is a poached egg--or he would be
the devil of hell.

You must take your choice. Either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse.

You can shut him up for a fool or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us."

Being a Christian is not simply about being a “good” person.

It is indeed not about who the follower is.

Rather it is all about Him who we follow.

A Christian is a person who has recognized who Jesus is and has then decided to follow him.

As Peter put it: Jesus is The Messiah: the Son of the living God.

My prayer is that, with Simon Peter, you would simply say with every fiber of your being, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

The question I’d like to leave you with today is this: Who do you think Jesus is?

Because your answer, the way you name Him, will affect the way you live your life.

Amen

St. James and the computer

2008-08-22T07:23:00.000-07:00

In my travels yesterday, I happened to drive by St. James Episcopal Church in Independence, Iowa. I noticed a sign saying that they had a computer center with free internet open from 2-5 every weekday afternoon. I jotted that fact down in my mental notebook and continued on with my day.

Well in the afternoon, I was driving back home and was going close to Independence so I decided to swing by and check this computer center out for myself. It is a rather simple affair, five computers in their parish hall and all of them had someone working on it. I spoke with the church member that was monitoring the center and she said that it had been open for a couple of weeks and had been getting more people every day that they were open. The reason that they decided to do this is that they are very close to the city library that is being closed because the library is moving to a new, more spacious building. However, the new building is quite a ways away from the current building and the people who have a tendency to use the computer services in the library tend to be disadvantaged and live within a four block area of the current library. Traveling to the new library would be difficult, especially in the winter. So the congregation decided to open up this center to help out their neighbors. In the hour that I was there, a total of seven people came and went using the computers to check email, apply for jobs, type correspondence, or just to surf the web for awhile.

I really compliment the St. James congregation for doing this outreach to the community. May we all have this attitude and forethought to help our neighbors.

Grace to all.

Tree Planting

2008-08-20T06:58:00.001-07:00

On Monday evening a group of Democrats from Clayton County, Iowa gathered for a photo with a tree that was donated by the county party to the Elkader city park. The tree was actually planted in the spring but alas, there was a flood that closed the park. The tree survived the flood (there was about a foot of water covering the ground for a day where the tree is located) and so we decided that we should visit our tree and have a photo taken with it.

Afterwards we had our monthly meeting, which didn't have the attendance that I had hoped that it would since this is an election year. I have a feeling that many people in Iowa are still suffering from PCSD (Post Caucus Stress Disorder) in which they won't get interested until a month before the election.

Overall, it is looking good for Democrats in the county, but as I well know, there is no candidate that is ever assured of winning in any contested election.

First Day of School

2008-08-19T07:57:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of school for my kids. They are starting 10th, 8th, 4th, & 2nd grade at our local school which is about 8 miles away from where we live. All of the grades are in one building and the total enrollment of the school is about 675 students. It is also the school that I graduated from a few years ago.... But then I went to school in Strawberry Point for K-4, then Lamont for 5th grade, then Arlington for 6th grade, then back to Strawberry Point for 7-8, and then out to the central school (Starmont) site that is located between the three towns. It is much nicer to have everything all in one site now.

The youngest who is 4 years old is going to "Grandma's Preschool", which is actually my mom who works with her on a number of activities. Hopefully, when I'm 84 years old I will have half the energy of my mom.

Well that is about it for today. Grace and Peace to all.

Crop Dusting

2008-08-18T09:31:00.001-07:00

On Friday of last week we had an unusual occurrence over our farm. A neighbor apparently was having some of their corn sprayed with a crop duster. I can only remember one other time when there was a crop duster in our neighborhood. That is when there was an outbreak of army worms about 25 years ago. I haven't heard what the reason was for the spraying but it must be some sort of serious infestation because the cost of employing a crop duster is very high.

I know that the pilots that fly these aircraft must be crazy because they go very low over the fields and seem like they barely miss the electric lines and/or trees at the ends of the fields.

Twenty Years of Wedded Bliss (ok, sometimes it wasn't blissful...)

2008-08-13T13:51:00.000-07:00

On August 13, 1988 in West Bend, Iowa, two young idealistic people got married. Now, twenty years later, they have been through ups and downs, the births of five beautiful children, the grief of losing parents, dreams realized, and dreams not realized. Through it all they stayed together which sometimes was very hard but it all was worth it. Marriage isn't just about love; it is about commitment. When I see friends and family that have gotten divorced I feel very sad because they don't have the special bond that my wife and I have. Maybe they never had a bond like we have and that is the reason for the couple going separate ways.

I pray for all couples, that they have the bond that true love and commitment gives them and that it will endure always.

Bye Bye Bull

2008-08-12T14:00:00.001-07:00

Well today is Tuesday which is when the Edgewood Livestock Auction has their weekly sale. And today our Simmental bull, Wolf, headed to the sale barn. It is kind of a sad day for me since I purchased him when he was a yearling and I've had him for four years. But as in all things on a farm, he was livestock and not a pet. So it came to the time when he headed down the road. At least now I won't be getting any phone calls from a neighbor that he is out and in with their cows....

It is Monday again....

2008-08-11T09:35:00.001-07:00

Kizzy the calf lounging around at the Clayton County Fair

It is Monday again and I'm taking a wee break between reports. The kids have a week to go before school starts again. My lovely wife is trying to finish up her final paper for a class she took this summer. To top it off, it is a very nice day out today.

With all the conflicts in the world, Iraq, Afganistan, Sudan, and now Georgia, I am reminded of the first verse of Psalm 133 which says, Oh, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together in unity! My prayer for today is not necessarily of unity but of peace.

O God, may peace come to those areas and peoples that are experiencing wars and conflicts that they may find peace not just for themselves but for their neighbors as well. Amen

Walking on Water Sermon

2008-08-10T14:37:00.000-07:00

A photo of the Mississippi River near Waukon Junction, Iowa

This is the sermon that I gave at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa on Sunday, Augsust 10^th.

Once, on a church bulletin board there was the following notice:
Morning Bible Study: Jesus walks on water
Evening Bible Study: Searching for Jesus.

Somehow it seemed no one in that church had foreseen the confusing message their bulletin board was going to tell that day. Anyway this morning we have the familiar story about Jesus walking on water.

First a bit of background: John the Baptist has just been beheaded and the disciples (some of whom were followers of John) have not had time to grieve for him. They are immediately plunged into feeding the 5000, gathering up the 12 baskets of fragments left over and trying now to quell a crowd of people who want to proclaim Jesus as king. Jesus then sends them on ahead of him in a boat. Then Matthew says that Jesus dismissed the people and went alone up the mountain to pray. You know we could ignore this verse, see it as just setting the context of the next episode in the gospel and yet it contains some very important lessons for us all this morning.

First – Jesus is genuinely concerned in the welfare of us his disciples. They need rest after all that has happened. So he sends them ahead, away from the crowd and the demands of people. He sends them ahead so that the demands of ministry which have drained them cannot exert pressure on them for a time. We all need to learn to take time out from people and the demands of others.

Secondly – they obey and in obeying they will in fact come face to face with a storm. Learn from that – obedience to the will, to the Word of God does not guarantee a quiet life. It may in fact lead us through a storm. But remember this also – the storm was not unforeseen by Christ. He was not being careless or care free with the life of his disciples. There was a lesson that they could learn only in the midst of that storm.

Thirdly – Jesus had not forgotten them, even when he was praying. He went up a mountainside. Obviously because it enabled him to be alone to pray, but also because it enabled him to see the disciples in the boat rowing across the lake. Who was Jesus praying for? Himself, yes but I am also sure, from the example he set the disciples elsewhere in prayer, the disciples also. Here is an important lesson from Jesus about ministry. You are most vulnerable after the miracle has happened. You are most vulnerable and need to seek the face of God in prayer immediately you have done something for the glory of God. If Christ needed to seek his Father’s face in prayer immediately after feeding 5000 then how much more do we after the things we do for God’s glory.

Then we learn that the disciples are now caught in a storm. The wind has come up against them and their little boat is being buffeted about by the waves. They are struggling for all they are worth to keep the boat on course. Then Jesus comes walking on the water towards them. Matthew tells us it was the fourth watch of the night, that is about 3am.

Well the disciples are absolutely terrified, hardly surprising. They fail to recognize him because they do not expect him to come to them. After all they had left him on the shore many hours ago. They did not expect him and they certainly had not entertained the idea that he could walk on water. In fact Matthew says they think he is some sort of a ghost. Their fear is real and it is clear to Christ because he speaks to them. Note the middle phrase – ‘It is I’ or ‘I AM.’ This phrase again points to a self-revelation of God. But it is prefaced and followed by an exhortation to take courage and not be afraid. It is only at this point, the voice of Christ, the Word of God spoken that the disciples eyes are opened as to who it is that comes walking on the water towards them. You see, their eyes are blinded by the storm around them. They cannot see that it is Christ coming towards them because their eyes, their heart, their minds are full of waves, wind and rain. They are focused on the storm and they do not expect Jesus to come. With the result that when he does they fail to recognize him amidst the storm.

But Peter, does recognize Jesus. Not only does he recognize him he also has faith in him. So Peter calls out to Christ in the midst of the storm. You know, courage alone is not enough to walk on water. Courage must have wisdom and discernment. That is why Peter calls for Jesus to call him forth. Peter wanted to go to Christ but he would and could only do so if Christ called him forth. Why did Peter ask such a question of Jesus? I think Peter knew that where Jesus was no matter how dark the night, no matter how high the waves, strong the wind or wet the water –it was in fact safer than being in a boat without him. I think it is central to this whole story

Jesus says ‘come’ and Peter obeys. It took faith and courage to climb over the side of the boat and to let go and walk towards Jesus. We are not told how far Peter walked before he began to sink. I will come to the sinking in a moment. But stop for a moment and think abut what Peter has just done. There were, and are, all sorts of reasons for not getting out of the boat in the midst of the storm.

You can’t walk on water – it is impossible.
You will look foolish and get even wetter than you already are.
It is dangerous, the boat is the safest place to be.
You are needed here in the boat – we need all the help we can get to fight this storm.
You are putting too much faith in that call.

There was only one reason to get out of that boat – Jesus had said ‘come.’ There is no other reason to climb over the side of that boat and to walk on water. Everything said to do the very opposite but Peter obeyed the command of Jesus. The reality is that no other disciple in that boat obeyed. They sat there cowering in fear, blinded by their fear of the storm. The other eleven remained terrified in the boat and never experienced walking on water – only Peter did. Remain in the boat and you never know what it is like to walk on the water with Christ. And the truth is that only the call of Christ could and would make it possible – that is why Peter asks the question.

Then it all begins to go horribly wrong. For some reason this is the part that most people focus on – the fact that Peter’s faith failed him. Yes it did but not until after he had walked on water. Let me ask you a question: Which would you rather? Taking a few steps on the water towards Jesus and then sinking or never getting out of the boat? Yes Peter looked around him and when his eyes had moved off Christ and on to the wind and the waves he began to sink. He began to doubt the reality that had happened and it all began to unravel. He begins to listen to those voices that would have kept him in the boat in the first place. ‘What was I thinking?’ ‘I can’t walk on water.’ ‘I am going to drown.’ ‘What am I doing out here on the water?’ Immediately he yells ‘save me Lord!’ Jesus does save Peter and in the midst of the water, away from the hearing of those disciples in the boat he helps Peter to locate the source of his sinking – doubt and lack of faith. Peter had not doubted when he climbed out over the side of the boat. He had no lack of faith as he walked towards Christ on the water. It was when his focus left Christ and went on to the wind and the waves that faith left him and doubt assailed his soul.

But is that not the story of your faith and my faith? We walk on water, we begin to sink. We tell Christ to go away and then when we begin to drown we cry for him to save us. You see the reality for us all is that the world is a pretty stormy place. There are setbacks, opposition, unexpected obstacles and any one of them will shift our gaze off Jesus and we begin to sink and drown. The reality also is that people are very quick to come and say ‘I told you so!’ There are many who refuse to get out of the boat because of the storms of life and they sit around just waiting to point out the drowning of others because they stepped out in faith.

Here is the heart of this passage. You cannot grow unless you get out of the boat and experience both walking on water and that sinking drowning experience which leads you to cry from the depths of your soul for Christ to save you. Peter needed to sink in order to grow. He needed to sink in order that he might move to the next step of his faith in Christ. You see walking on water does not ultimately lead to spiritual growth. How often we read in the gospels of the miracles of Christ but how many followed only to see a miracle happen – they never came to faith because of the miracle. Those experiences may bring people back to see and experience more but it is the experience of suffering which drives them to cry out to Christ.

You see by sinking and being saved Peter would never forget. He would never forget the experience of taking that step of faith out of the boat and walking on the water. He would never forget that fear in his soul as he began to sink nor the cry for salvation. He would not forget the hands of Jesus lifting him up out of the wet and the experience of walking back to the boat together. He would never forget what it felt like to have the arms of Christ around him supporting him as together they got back into the boat. You know one of the things we fail to see and understand about the disciples in the gospel is that their faith and understanding of who Jesus was came grew gradually. They constantly come back to the same point time and time again. Each time their understanding has grown a little deeper and their eyes are opened a little more to who Jesus is and why he had come. It is not until the cross and the resurrection that their eyes are truly opened and their understanding deepened further. I would suggest that is the normal pattern for how people come to faith in Christ Jesus – over a longer period of time than we think or would like. But gradually eyes are opened, understanding deepened and the same point is returned to many times. It happened with the disciples and they had Christ as their teacher – why would we expect anything differently?

There are some lessons here for us this morning.

Obedience does not guarantee that we will escape adversity. Obedience may in fact lead us through some severe storms. When that happens let us remember Jesus has not forgotten us – he has foreseen every storm along the way.

When we least expect it, in the darkest moment of the storm He will come to us, walking on the very waves, through the wind and rain – the very things which frighten us and buffet us. He comes to rescue us and to bring us safely to our journeys end. Yet the danger is that our eyes will be so focused on the storm that we will fail to recognise him when he comes. I pray that will not be so.

Courage requires discernment and wisdom – but when Christ calls us to get out of the boat and walk on water – it is a call to obedience and faith. Yes there will be fear, there will always be fear when we step out in faith – but remember Peter had to step out in faith. Christ called him to come forth but Peter had to take the step of faith.

Yes we will experience great moments in our faith, walking on the water but we will also experience those moments when we are sinking and drowning. It is those moments when we cry to Christ to save us that we grow – because when all else fails, when there is no hope except him – he comes and lifts us and saves us. He brings us back to safety and takes us to where he had instructed us to go in the first place.

Here is a question: Would you rather sink having experienced walking on the water towards Christ or remain in the boat? There will always be reasons to stay in the boat. There will always be voices telling you how foolish, how stupid, how dangerous, etc it is to step out in faith on to the water. There is only one reason to get out of the boat and walk on the water – the command of Jesus to come.

Let me finish by saying this. Do you ever think that in quiet reflective moments Peter’s heart surged with the memories of that night and walking on the water? He experienced something none of the other disciples ever did because they stayed in the boat. There is a knowledge of Jesus that only comes through the action and experience of getting out of our boats and walking on the water with him. Peter walked on water, he sank and was rescued. The result was his eyes, the eyes of the others were opened further to who Jesus was. So when you begin to sink – your response is the key. Remember Christ will be there to save you all you have to do is call on him. But also remember you wont ever experience walking on water if you never get out of your boat – and that means taking a risk at answering the voice of Christ.

Amen

A midsummer's afternoon

2008-08-07T11:23:00.000-07:00

The above photo is of the four Mulefoot piglets that my fifteen year old daughter exhibited at the Clayton County, Iowa Fair.

These are the critters that she received a trophy for 'Best Overall Other Animal' exhibit. She is now up to two fair trophies. That is the number that I received for all of my years exhibiting at the county fair and she has three years left. Of course my thirteen year old already had two trophies so she will probably end up with more than either of us.

The majority of my family is down in Des Moines, Iowa. My lovely wife had a educational conference there. Three of the kids and my mom went with her, they are staying at my brother's house where the youngest two can play with my niece's kids. My thirteen year old daughter and my nine year old son are lucky enough to get to stay with their dad for a few days.

Well I suppose I should get back to working on another appraisal report....

Grace and Peace to all!

The County Fair

2008-08-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

This past week was our county fair in National, Iowa. My wife and I are both 4-H leaders and four out of the five kids are involved some way in 4-H. The four year old isn't old enough yet to be an official part of it but she tries to help out with everyone else.

If you don't know, 4-H is a youth organization that originally started out in rural areas but is now in both large and small places. In Iowa, the Iowa State University extension service administers the program. I think that 4-H is best summed up by the 4-H pledge that is said at every meeting.

I pledge
My head to clearer thinking,
My heart to greater loyalty,
My hands to larger service, and
My health to better living,
For my club, my community, my country, and my world.

Our kids did well, they received some purple ribbons, mostly blue ribbons, and a few red ribbons. One trophy was won by the oldest daughter in the "Other Animals" category for the mulefoot pigs that she took.

The fair is an event that the whole family looks forward to but I think that everyone is relieved when it ends after a few days. The oldest two stayed overnight in the barn with the livestock. Yours truly got to chaperone two nights to make sure that no one got into too much mischief. Now school will be starting in a couple of weeks so the kids are winding down the summer.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful day!

Heaven is Like Parables Sermon

2008-07-30T09:24:00.000-07:00

Organ Pipes at St. Sebald Lutheran Church, rural Strawberry Point, Iowa

This is the sermon that I gave at the Skip-A-Way Campgrounds at Clermont, Iowa and at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour which is also in Clermont, Iowa on Sunday, July 27^th.

I believe that sometimes we human beings have a perception problem. Often we think we have the proper perspective on an issue when in fact we are way off. It causes someone to look ridiculous.

That is the focus of the readings today. In the first lesson, Jacob works for seven years for a precious treasure—Rachel, only to be given Leah instead. Jacob felt ridiculous, because it was dark and he did not realize it was Leah until the morning after the wedding! And he still wanted the treasure, Rachel, but Leah was part of the package. We look at that story and it is ridiculous by today's standards.

There's a story that Thomas Wheeler who was CEO of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company, tells on himself: Mr. Wheeler and his wife were driving along an interstate highway when he noticed that their car was low on gas. Wheeler got off the highway at the next exit and soon found a rundown gas station with just one gas pump. He asked the lone attendant to fill the tank and check the oil; then went for a little walk around the station to stretch his legs.

As he was returning to the car, he noticed that the attendant and his wife were engaged in an animated conversation. The conversation stopped as he paid the attendant. But as he was getting back into the car, he saw the attendant wave and heard him say, "It was great talking to you."

As they drove out of the station, Wheeler asked his wife if she knew the man. She readily admitted she did. They had gone to high school together and had dated steadily for about a year.

"Boy, were you lucky that I came along," bragged Wheeler.

"If you had married him, you'd be the wife of a gas station attendant instead of the wife of a chief executive officer."

"My dear," replied his wife, "if I had married him, he'd be the chief executive officer and you'd be the gas station attendant."

Often we think we have the proper perspective on something when in fact we are way off. Jesus understood this propensity for us humans to get it wrong. Especially when it comes to things spiritual. So he told us parables. In fact sometimes the Gospels seem like a parade full of parables, - moving from one significant parable to the next – the parable of the sower, the parable of the weeds (that we heard last week), the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the prodigal son, and so on. But when we get to this small group of parables, we've reached a float in the parade that doesn't seem too remarkable. It's like a civic group that we've heard of but don't know too much about and they always have the same old hay rack as their entry. We've noticed them before in other year's parades but they've never seemed significant enough to hold our attention for long.

Let’s see if we can come up with some fresh insights into them today.

“The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (vs. 31-32)

I don’t know if you deal much in mustard seeds. I don’t. I looked around to see if we had any mustard seeds at home. We did. I'm not sure why we have some, I know I haven't used any before. But apparently my wife, Marcia, has used some before.

Parables are often intended as dry jokes, with camels going through the eye of a needle, and finding dust in someone else’s eye when you’ve got a log in your own. And here, with the mustard seed, where you’ve got the smallest of all seeds developing into a magnificent piece of foliage.

True? Well, from what I understand, and I've found out more about the mustard plant this week than I ever wanted to know, the mustard tree is hardly an impressive plant in its adult form - more like an over sized weed from the descriptions I’ve been given.

‘And birds of the air come and build their nests in this over sized shrub’, Jesus says. ‘Very small birds’, he neglects to add. A ridiculous proposition.

And what about this woman?

“The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” (vs.33)

Unless you’re a baker by trade, you might miss the fact that Jesus is talking about an absurdly large amount of dough in this parable - using the equivalent of about 90 pounds of flour, as I understand it! We’re talking about a lot of dough, and very industrious woman...or a woman who has just wasted yeast and contaminated 'unleavened flour' It is a matter of perspective.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (vs.44)

I remember as a kid, using my dad's metal detector to see what I could find. I enthusiastically dug lots of holes in the yard, hoping that I might uncover some buried treasure. All I ever found were some rusty nails.

I accept now that there’s not a lot of pirates’ gold buried in rural Iowa. Even so, in the Middle East, in areas of land where Jesus was, where numerous tribes, peoples, and civilizations had fought over the same plots of ground over many generations, it was always possible that one of the previous owners of your property had stashed his treasure deep in the ground when he saw the enemy coming, and didn’t get an opportunity to redeem it.

Treasure law is complicated. In ancient days there were clear laws about treasure. And there were common stories about people discovering treasure. Those stories had to do with being rewarded for some righteous behavior.

One such story was about Abba-Judah. He was wealthy and generous but he lost his wealth. He was saddened that he couldn't give anymore to the rabbis and in his despair his wife said to him, "Well you still have a field, sell half of it, give to the rabbis and then just plow the other half." Which he did and they blessed him for his generosity. They said, "May the Holy One, blessed be He, make up all the things that you lack." And one day when, Abba-Judah went to plow his field, his cow broke a leg and he went to lift the leg of the cow and there right where the leg was, he found a jewel worth a great deal of money. These were the kinds of stories that were floating around in the 1st century as well as all the rules about what you could find and keep.

This was the backdrop for this parable. And so Jesus opened his mouth and said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again and then in his joy, went and sold all that he had and bought the field." What does this mean? Now we read this and we assume maybe at first glance, that the kingdom of heaven is about joy.

And certainly it is, but the hearers who heard this parable would say, "Wait a minute, that man did not own that field. He was a day laborer who found treasure marked; it was hidden. It was marked and yet he was so excited that he bought the field." They are thinking that he just snookered the owner of the field, like we are tempted to snooker the person in a yard sale find.

And probably the clearest proof of that assumption is this. If he could have legally lifted the treasure, why not just take it? But he didn't. He had to go and sell everything he had to buy the field in order for it to be legal. And unlike the Jewish treasure stories, there is no sense in Jesus' parable about whether the man who finds this treasure is good or bad. Often Jesus reverses things to drive home a point. So why is the kingdom of God like this hidden treasure? Because the kingdom of God comes to us before our deeds can dictate anything. The kingdom of God is discovered by "morally good people" and by "terrible people."

Jesus tells them another parable:

“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

Now I know nothing about pearls. I’m rather uncultured in the way of pearls. I don’t know if pearls are valued today as they once were.

Legend has it that Julius Caesar gave Brutus’ mother a pearl worth six million sesterti. (and no doubt lived to regret it since Brutus was the one who assassinated Caesar). Cleopatra was supposed to have a pearl worth 100 million sesterti.

Certain pearls were evidently worth a lot to certain persons in the first century. You’d sell everything you had in order to get the right one. That doesn’t make much sense to me, but then again I’m not an pearl addict. It's absurd to think about.

The parables today either speak of a ridiculous proposition, or a treasure. The Kingdom of God is waiting here to be discovered. Sometimes it will be discovered with joy and ease; other times it will be hidden, waiting. Our struggles as Christians can miss that. Sometimes, despite all our efforts, our achievements in Christian ministry may well seem to us to be as minuscule as that mustard seed, or that hidden yeast.

And that brings in the question of time lines and the Holy Spirit. Sometimes in many Churches, after years and years of hard work by dedicated people, all we’ve have to show for it is this little mustard seed. Where are the results? Hidden! Like yeast that’s hidden somewhere in the dough. Oh yeah, the Holy Spirit is growing Kingdom of God through our efforts, you can be sure, but don’t put a time line on exactly how long you think it’s going to take before you see the results.

One day … you’ll be able to put that magnificent pearl around your neck. One day ... you’ll be able to cash in your treasure. One day you’ll see how that mysterious and invisible yeast has transformed the whole enormous lump of bread dough. One day … that tiny seed will become a huge over sized bush. They are all representations of the Holy Spirit's treasure--grace and goodness in our lives

In the meantime, we pay the price, we give up everything we have, we hang on to the mustard seed, and we keep on kneading the dough, because we know that the Kingdom of God was given to us when Jesus died, and we work each day through our lives to bring it to its fullness.

Well … what do you think? Was it worth taking a closer look at this entry in the parade? Did you perceive anything new in them today?

God knows that we need fresh insight into the Scriptures and into our world,. We need fresh perspectives on life and ministry, but we need too the old, old story, and we need to keep being reminded of the basic truths - that following Jesus is not a promise that we can see results for our efforts. Yet we can be confident that our work is having its effect, and as sure as there’s a mustard plant blooms, we can be sure, that one day, that we will arrive at the fullness of the Kingdom.

Amen.

Mississippi River Tour

2008-07-22T09:29:00.000-07:00

Dusk on Harper's Slough, a backwater of the Mississippi River

Last night my wife and I went on a couple hour Mississippi River boat tour at Harpers Ferry, Iowa. It was a group tour with a group from the Clayton County Democrats. We had a potluck and a short meeting and then we went on our cruise. We went up and down and around the various backwaters of the river with the captain of the boat telling us different stories of the history and ecology of the river. When on the main channel of the Mississippi we went up below the lock and dam at Lynxville, Wisconsin. Then we returned via a series of backwater sloughs.

It was a very enjoyable time and I would recommend a tour if you are ever in the Northeast Iowa area. Their website is www.maidenvoyagetours.com

I hope that all of you are having a wonderful day!

Grace and Peace to you all.

Monday musings

2008-07-21T09:15:00.000-07:00

The above photo was snapped by your truly this morning in the flower bed in our front yard. Two bumble bees are busily sipping the nectar out of this coneflower.

Mondays have a tendency to be busy for me, I have to catch up with the things that I've let slip over the weekend. Today, I have an update on an appraisal report (which is now done), do some additional research on a report that the bank didn't like, work on a government foreclosure report, do my normal chores, and this evening my lovely wife and I get to go on an evening cruise on the Mississippi River.

Of course through this all I will be musing next Sunday's readings to find the common thread so I can figure out what sort of thing to talk about in my sermon.

Today the kids are off at driver's ed class, babysitting, at a Church camp, and the youngest two are in the other room watching the TV.

I hope all of you are having a marvelous Monday!

Parable of the Weeds Sermon

2008-07-20T20:17:00.000-07:00

This is darnel which is the tares (weeds) of the Parable of the Tares.
(photo from Wikipedia)

Here is the sermon that I gave at the Skip-A-Way campground and the Church of the Saviour, both in Clermont, Iowa.

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

I have heard it said that Heaven really must be a wonderful place, because no-one has yet come back to complain!

We hear a lot about heaven today. In the old testament today, Jacob dreams of Heaven, complete with a ladder and angels ascending and descending. Jacob is told his family will stretch across the generations, just as it was foretold to Abraham, his grandfather. For Jacob, this dream of multiplying his family is a cultural heaven, a promise fulfilled.

Paul, too, talks about Heaven and judgment, and is thankful for the Holy Spirit, who Intercedes for us and calls on our behalf, giving us the ability to pray and to audaciously call God our Father.

As Christians, heaven is something which we think we have an idea about, it is certainly our goal and perhaps through the grace of God, it will be our reward also. But we do not properly know what the Kingdom of Heaven will be like: I've seen cartoon images abound of clouds and angels with halos and wings compete with pastoral images of rolling golf courses and big houses. But is that what Heaven is really like?

Christ spoke frequently of the kingdom of heaven and its relationship to this earth, but didn't really describe it in practical terms. It was far more important for him to outline the nature of heaven than its substance. For us, it is the nature of heaven which should be our concern, not the substance. Because, coming from God, it will naturally be a good place.

Thus, this chapter of Matthew, chapter 13, serves to bring together three explorations of the Kingdom of Heaven by likening it to something familiar to the people of the age. Three times in this chapter he uses the phrase “The Kingdom of Heaven is like…”

Like a man who sowed good seed and had it ruined by an enemy
Like a mustard seed which starts small and grows into something mighty
Like yeast which moves through bread, leavening it and transforming it

We should be careful not to overstep our understanding of these parables, for Christ does not say “The Kingdom of Heaven is”. He says “The Kingdom of Heaven is LIKE”. We are not ready yet for what the kingdom actually is, and so it is revealed to us in language and concepts that we mere human beings can handle.

Each of these examples gives us a glimpse of an aspect of heaven, but without the full picture. Christ, who came from heaven to earth is the only one who is gifted with that full picture.

The parable of the Weeds (or Tares as used in some versions) is for us an indication of future judgment. Throughout his ministry Christ strove to call to repentance rather than to condemn: to encourage inner change rather than to completely reject; to only spring to positive action when faced with absolute evil in the form of the possessed or the money changers of the Temple courts. The reason for his lack of condemnation is rooted less in Christ’s all-pervading forgiveness, but in the sure and certain knowledge that proper judgment will be upon us, and will be administered fairly. The parable we have before us, the weed is darnel which looks like wheat when it starts growing but turns into a plant that is not only a nuisance but is poisonous. Normally, one should try to remove the noxious darnel weeds before they take deep root and intermingle with the wheat but the experienced worker can separate them by the seed head. The owner’s response does not condemn the weeds immediately, but leaves it to the harvest time. He trusts in the judgment process, he trusts that no poison will be left to sour the entire harvest.

As frequently happens, Christ uses a parable, not because it is instantly recognized by the hearers, not in order to perpetuate the prejudices of the listeners, but to subvert their common understanding, to challenge the norm, to take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.

Of course, this is what Christ does for us each and every day. He takes the ordinary and makes it extraordinary. He takes our ordinary lives and transforms us.

The humble mustard seed is transformed into a shrub, it expands and takes over, filling the area and beyond. That is growth, growth in the spirit, growth in faith and love, growth in our humanity. The flat unleavened bread is tasteless and uninspiring, and it is the yeast which transforms it. Just like our love, yeast grows in the warmth, grows under the pleasure of God. It is more than simply for ourselves that we experience this growth, for we have preached this faith for far longer than the modern ‘self-help’ gurus and life-trainers; the faith in Christ moves beyond the personal and into the collective, making us children of God.

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like…” Well, like nothing on earth really. The Kingdom of Heaven is beyond our human understanding, but on the authority of Christ it will be better than anything we can imagine. It will be broader than the mustard shrub, more fulfilled that the leavened bread, and it is not us or our values who will decide who is there – for that is God’s choice alone. For now, we must continue to grow in Christ’s likeness.

This is why coming to church, It is more than something we do, because we have always done so. We continue to do this, and to encourage others to do this, because it is a part of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our lives; it is the yeast which pervades us all, and takes something dull and flat and lifeless and makes it something which is good and wholesome and approved of by God. In short, we are building the Kingdom of God here on earth, and getting a taste our future! This is what the Kingdom of Heaven is like!

Amen.

Parable of the Sower Sermon

2008-07-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

Here is the sermon that I gave today at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour in Clermont, Iowa. Hopefully it makes some sense....

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Back before farmers had grain drills, they used an end gate seeder to seed oats or other small grains. Imagine a small wagon with a fan blade on at the end. The farmer drives his tractor or horses across the field, and the seed is thrown out across the field. Normally, the ground is plowed then disked to get the seedbed ready then the oats are seeded and then harrowed in with a drag. But in Jesus' time, in rural Judea and Galilee, the seed was sown by hand in a broadcast fashion and the sowing preceded the plowing or harrowing. The sower deliberately sowed the seed everywhere in the field, including any paths, in the rocky places, and among thorns and weeds as well as in the good soil. However, if the plowing was delayed for any reason, then they got the results that Jesus mentioned in this parable. It was that act of disturbing the ground that made all the difference.

The kingdom of God broke into the entire world when Jesus came. It was the seed that fell on many different kinds of soil in the human heart. The reception of the seed depends upon the receiver—where they are in their lives, and if they hear that tugging of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Romans reading today. The message then was received in a variety of ways just as it is today. The number of fruitless hearers was very great then even among those who heard Jesus speak in person.

Jesus often used parables or stories to relate spiritual truths to things that people were familiar with in their every-day lives. In this way he illustrated the word of God by calling it seed. The soil represented the receptivity or lack of receptivity of the human heart to receive the seed or Jesus' message. I find this image of us as soil, as dirt, hearkens back to the words we hear when we receive ashes at the beginning of Lent “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

Today’s gospel reading in Matthew focuses on the soil rather than on the sower. Although there was no harvest resulting from three of the four types of soil, this parable points out that a person’s heart, like soil, is capable of improvement and capable of bearing a good harvest.

This parable calls to our attention the fact that although the soil is not the way it should be or the way that it can be, it can still be made into productive soil. That is the job of the Spirit in our lives. We can relate the soil of our hearts to this parable and know that change can begin to take place in spite of the

1. hardness of our heart
2. the shallowness of our experience
3. the many thorns that choke out the God's message in our lives

Today, I believe that we can learn some valuable truths from this parable that Jesus told to the crowds along the shore.

The effect of the word is dependent on the state of the heart. T Let us take a look and see if we can identify some things that need to be improved and where we need a bit of fertilizer, maybe some “Miracle Gro” in order to produce a better crop. If we find ourselves in one of the soils that is not producing a good crop, let us know that there is hope for us; Jesus can add the Miracle Gro to make us what we need to be. It's as if the reading of Isaiah is giving us a recipe, talking about the Word of Jesus nourishing us like water, helping us to bud and flourish. Jesus can change the hardness of our hearts, he can give us the stability and roots we need, and he can help us to aerate and work that patch of dirt that is robbing us of abundant life.

The first place the grain fell was on the pathway. It was a common thing for the paths to run through and around the unfenced fields. Any seed that fell on the paths never entered the ground and was trampled underfoot or the birds came and ate it. The path was so packed down that the seed couldn’t begin to get its roots into the ground. Here, the Spirit needs to aerate...use one of those plugger to pull out chunks for change. This sounds painful, and yet pain in our lives is one of the ways that we grow and soften. What will break up this hard packed ground? Many things happen in a person’s life that cause the hardness to begin to break up. It is not an overnight process. Most of all the Holy Spirit begins to bring about changes in the outer surface as prayer is constantly sent up for people.

Something can be done with even packed down soil; something can be done to plow up the hard, compacted soil of people's hearts. You might know people who have no interest in spiritual things whatsoever. You might say, nothing is getting through to them. The gospel message is not getting below the outer surface.

As we heard in Paul's letter to the Romans today, the Holy Spirit says we are God's children. And since everyone here today was a child at one time, is a child now, or had children in their family at one time, I think we can all relate that sometimes children just won't listen and will do the opposite of what their parent says. That is like the hard ground of the paths, everything bounces off and nothing gets through.

It is up to us to give proper value to the things of God. To guard the word as we receive it. To plow up the hard unplowed ground that is in our lives. In what ways is your heart like the soil along the pathway? In what ways have you become a little bit hardened and indifferent?

The second type of soil was rocky. This represents soil that is OK but it is a bit thin and has a lot of rocks just beneath the surface. The seed takes root quickly in the shallow soil but there is not a secure root structure. People often go to revivals and crusades and they receive the word in a thoughtless way. Maybe they are too eager to receive but it doesn’t last over the long haul. They hear and receive with joy and at first give promise of a good harvest but something happens. When they come down off of that 'spiritual high'. Here, we need to have the Spirit fertilize our souls, so that when trouble or persecution comes, we don't quickly fall away. These temporary disciples are numerous in times of revival when things are going great. Sometimes people receive the word and for a time are doing great. Then they become 'offended' by something. It could be rather trivial. They quit going to Church. Then they forget about God's message. The sun beats down and the plant withers and dies out. There is no moisture.

Many people are glad to hear a good sermon and they hear it and don’t turn their backs on it. Yet they don’t profit from it. Their lives are not changed by it. They are pleased but not changed. I believe too many people today just want a little 'taste' of Christianity. They want something to say they are Christian and they belong to a Church, but they don't want any of the responsibility that comes along with it.

The third type of soil is infested with thorny weeds. This represents the ground that has not been thoroughly weeded of the thistles. The soil is good enough and deep enough but other things draw the moisture and nutrients away from the plant, and it crowds and starves the plant out. This speaks of the cares of the world coming in and choking out the plants that are trying to grow making the plants unfruitful. Today in our society there are so many choices and these things use up so much of our time that only the leftover time remains for spiritual things. If this is our patch of dirt, we need to think hard about what is happening in our life that is infesting our spirit—whether it is a nettle, or a ragweed, or a nettlesome friend. Our spiritual lives are being choked out so subtly that sometimes we are not aware of what is even happening. Although there is some growth taking place with a promise of a harvest, it never materializes.

What cares of this world are using up all your time. It could be lots of things and not necessarily bad things. The deceitfulness of having many things means trusting in those things or putting our confidence in them so that we are no longer trusting God very much. When we allow thorns or weeds to take over our life, we don't allow the message of the gospel to be a priority.

The last type of ground is the good ground. It hears and accepts and produces. It doesn’t say that the good ground doesn’t have stones or thorns or weeds in it but it is ground that has been cultivated and is continuously being tended to. The ground is guarded from allowing anything to come in and take over, choking out the intended harvest. The truth is simply this: it is hard to have a patch of earth that is like this. Gardeners are constantly working to get that special, sweet loam that takes on the seed and produces a great harvest. It is toil, but a joyful toil for the person who is spiritually mature, and sees the end, the harvest, in his or her dreams.

Our spiritual life is an ongoing process. You can’t stay away from church weeks or months at a time and expect to see the harvest spoken of here; 30, 60, 100 times as much as was sown. The soil of your heart can’t just be neglected and expected to automatically produce a good crop.

And as we heard in both Isaiah and the Psalm today, God provides the necessary water and sunshine for a good harvest. It is our job to cultivate the soil to see what we get from God.

What is interesting is that the soil that produces only a small crop, Jesus still called good. The 30 fold small crop is OK as well as the 60 fold or 100 fold bumper crop.

Let us remember that the kingdom of God advances slowly with varied responses depending on the individual. What kind of soil are you today? Remember that soil can be cultivated, a bit of Miracle Gro added, proper watering and with patience and change a crop can be produced. We must get rid of the things that choke off the fullness of life.

Amen.

A beautiful Saturday and I'm inside thinking....

2008-07-12T13:10:00.000-07:00

This is the cross and statues that are atop the Grotto of the Redemption in West Bend, Iowa.

Yep, it is Saturday afternoon, the kids are outside playing and I'm inside on the computer. So what gives? Why am I in here? Well I was to lead church services at a campground in Clermont, Iowa tomorrow morning. But the manager called and said that they weren't going to have services because they weren't done cleaning up the mess that was made when the Turkey river overflowed and created havoc in part of the campgrounds, they haven't reopened the section that the services are held in and they may not reopen it this summer. But since I had already written a rough draft of the sermon I was going to give, I thought I should finish it and see if the worship leader at the Episcopal Church of the Saviour would like me to give it tomorrow at Church since the priest is on vacation this month.

The Gospel text is the parable of the sower from Matthew. It is one of my favorite parables. But as always, how do I write something that makes sense to someone else. What I've written makes perfect sense to me but making sense to others is always my problem. So I'm doing another draft to try to refine it some more.

Peace & Grace to all!

Going to the Grotto

2008-07-08T09:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend most of the family (minus the daughter who was wandering around in Yellowstone) packed up and headed to West Bend, Iowa for a class reunion. We stayed at an excellent bed and breakfast north of town called Prairie Oasis. I would recommend Prairie Oasis to anyone who is staying in the area.

My wife's class reunion was good with over half of the class being there. I personally knew a few folks there but since I wasn't from the area I didn't know many people, so I basically followed her around kinda like a big puppy dog.

In West Bend there is a religious shrine next to SS Peter and Paul's Roman Catholic Church. It is called the Grotto of the Redemption which was started almost a century ago by the priest at the church as a thank you to God for helping the priest through a very serious illness. That priest worked on the Grotto for a number of decades and the Grotto is still a work in progress. It has a number of grottos which depict scenes out of the Bible. Any Christian will appreciate and learn more about their faith at this shrine.

I hope that all Americans had a wonderful Independence Day!

Newest Additions on the Farm

2008-06-28T07:49:00.000-07:00

Our newest additions on our little patch of earth here in Iowa is five piglets that one of our Mulefoot gilts (Lolly) had a couple of days ago. She is being a good mother and all of the piglets are doing well. The eldest daughter took Lolly to the county fair last year and received a trophy for best 'exotic livestock' presentation. The piglets will be weaned by fair time this year so she wants to take at least two of them up for this year's exhibition.

I am attempting to hold the fort down here while my lovely wife is off chaperoning a trip to Atlanta with some high school kids she teaches, my eldest daughter is off in Colorado Springs at a 'coin camp', and the older middle daughter is in Yellowstone with her cousins. That leaves me with the three youngest which has made for some interesting times. Thankfully I have a great mom who will watch them when I can't and the college aged daughter of some friends who has been able to take the kids to their various activities this week. Going to Church tomorrow might be an interesting time with the youngest......

PEACE AND GRACE!

A Lament

2008-04-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

Rain, Rain go away.
Come again another day.

Here in good ol' Iowa it has been raining for over 24 hours straight and the soil was saturated before it started to rain so all of the creeks, streams, and rivers are on the rise. They are sandbagging in several local communities and some schools don't have classes today because of the flooding. As luck would have it, I live on a ridge and I don't have to worry about flooding but I have many friends who do live in flood prone areas. One currently has water over their road so no one can get in or out of their place. That should make it interesting getting the milk truck in and out today.

With the way the soil conditions are here, it looks like it will be the first week of May before I will be able to get into the fields. That is the way it goes.

Grace and Peace!

What is this all about?

2008-04-19T15:42:00.001-07:00

What is this all about?

Good Question.

What will be written on here? Who am I? Why do I have a blog? What is the meaning of life?

Hmmm.... All very fair questions.

Lets start with what will be written on here, I expect it will be a lot of this, that, and the other thing. Probably some will be related to my political viewpoints (libertarianesque Democrat), my religious viewpoints (Methodist-Episcopalian), where I come from (rural Iowa), and what I do (am a farmer but support my farming habit by being a real estate appraiser).

Who am I? Well, not to give too much away but my name is Kevin and I'm married with five kids. I am involved in my local community, am on the school board, in various community groups, active in politics and active in Church.

Why do I have a blog? Well, I think it is a lot like having a journal, but having it wide open to other ideas and critiques from anybody and everybody. So let me know if there is anything that you disagree or agree with on here.

What is the meaning of life? Now that is saving the best for last..... The answer is: I don't know.
But I believe hints can be found in scriptural texts from across the world with the best being the Christian Bible.

So I am always up for a bit of debate on nearly anything.

Thanks for reading!

PEACE & GRACE