Gas is $4 a gallon

Sermon-Year A-6 Pentecost-Proper 7 –June 22, 2008
The Cloud of Unknowing,
"O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
I want you to think of a time in your life when you were brave. Take a moment. Remember an event, a time, when you were courageous. Think about it. It’s not easy. I had a lot of time to think about it, and I had a hard time coming up with one. As a rule, we don’t think of ourselves as bold and daring. I asked you this one last week, what’s the phrase used most in the New Testament? “Don’t be afraid.” Why do you think Jesus kept telling people not to be fearful? I think it’s because he saw the fear in people’s eyes-a lot.
I was meeting with some clergy this week, talking about this gospel, and we were focusing on what we thought was important in this long reading. And finally one of them said, “until people dealt with their fear-they wouldn’t be ready to follow.” Until people deal with their fear-they cannot follow. And Jesus is about discipleship.
My friend Mark asks it this way, “Do you serve your dragons tea?”
It’s “a bit of ancient oriental advice that he read. Serve your dragons tea. It refers to our fears.
There are things we will be afraid of all our lives. Those dragons will be with us. To serve them tea means to respect them without giving in to them. True courage means to be afraid and yet act as if you are not. Courage is not the absence of fear; courage is carrying on in spite of fear.” That’s what he says. Serve your dragons tea-name your fears-acknowledge them-but don’t give in.
There is a dragon out there that I hear a lot.
Every day, several times a day, I hear this opening phrase, “since gas is at $4 a gallon…” then fill in the blank. Let me tell you a story. Debby was at a garage sale 2 weeks ago that was advertised as being “Enormous”, “the whole subdivision” but when she got there, it was only one house, and another customer, a woman kind of went crazy screaming, “GAS IS AT $4 A GALLON AND THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE!!!!”
The thing is, the price of gas, I think, has become a symbol for us. $4 a gallon gas stands in for war, terrorism, floods and earthquakes, foreclosures, jobs. It’s a scary time. And this is how we talk about our fears. Life can feel random, arbitrary, out of control. And when we feel afraid, we don’t say, “I’m afraid” we say things like “GAS IS AT $4 A GALLON AND THIS IS ALL YOU HAVE!!!!” We tend to focus our fears, our worries, our doubts on symbols.
“What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul;”
Jesus’ disciples knew what fear was. They did not know what was happening, they did not know where Jesus was leading-and they were scared. Do you think Jesus kept saying “don’t be afraid” because we need to hear it? The people around Jesus knew that they were on the cusp, the edge of something new and different, and they were frightened. And so Jesus is always teaching, frequently reassuring, often challenging, and like today’s lesson- talking about fear and courage.
Ok, by now you have tuned out the whole time I was talking, trying to remember a . time when you were courageous, Have you come up with one yet?
Can you remember a time when you were brave?
Jesus has this long teaching about the cost of the gospel in today’s reading and he makes all these radical claims-love me more than family. Take up your cross, lose your life for my sake. These were scary words-then. “I have come to bring a sword…”
Listen, some days it’s good to be scared. It’s appropriate to be afraid of things that can hurt us. But nothing will hurt us as much as our own fears. Nothing can paralyze us, nothing can intimidate us, nothing can overwhelm us, as much as our own dread. I know, because I feel like I know a lot about fear.
And I know when I can finally name my fear, when I can ultimately serve tea to my dragons, that I have won the battle. When I can look at the symbols that I use and realize that they are just stickmen for my worries, that the fear can no longer win .
There is an old parable,
One night a house caught on fire. A young girl was forced to climb to the roof. Her father had gotten out with the rest of the family and saw her up there. He called to her, “Jump! I'll catch you!” He knew the girl had to jump to save her life. But all she could see between herself and her dad was smoke. The fire got closer and she was afraid. Her father yelled again, “Jump, sweetheart! I'll catch you!” But she protested, “Daddy, I can't see you!” The father said, “But I can see you, and that's all that matters!”
We are worth more than 2 sparrows. Don’t worry if you cannot remember a time when you were brave, we are often blind to our own moments of grace. We are called not to be fearless-but trusting. We stand on the housetops and shout, “It’s only $4 gas, it’s only fear. It can’t take our souls. God can see us and counts us, and knows us, and that’s all that matters.
Matthew 10:24-39
10:24 "A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;
10:25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
10:26 "So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.
10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
10:30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
10:31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
10:32 "Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;
10:33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
10:34 "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
10:36 and one's foes will be members of one's own household.
10:37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
10:38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
10:39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Where you land, evangelize

Sermon-Year A-5 Pentecost-Proper 6 –June 15, 2008
The Cloud of Unknowing,
"O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."

There is a great saint in Irish history called, St. Brendan the Navigator. He is most famous for going on a journey in a small leather skinned boat called, a curragh possibly all the way to America (this is one of my favorite pieces of art-showing St. Brendan and his followers). But he was also famous for planting monasteries and starting churches all over Ireland and Scotland. One of my favorite stories about Brendan was that he would take 2 or 3 of his followers, young monks, and he would put them in one of these small leather boats with this instruction-“wherever you land, evangelize.” And then the boat with a small sail and the monks would be pushed out to sea. I love the incredible confidence and faith and courage of this story. Imagine the strength and trust it would take to simply take off and believe that what you are doing will change lives?-but I also have always had the image in my mind of these young monks, sitting in this boat as they drift out to sea, looking back at Brendan safely standing on land and yelling at him, “wait, what is it again we’re supposed to do?”
I was telling folks yesterday that this is such a great gospel reading, and all the sermons I read from other people were so BORING. This is a amazing lesson: Jesus is busy doing his thing and realizes that even if he keeps on doing what he’s doing, he’ll never reach everyone “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless,…” . So he shares his divine power with his disciples. And he tells them to go out into the world, and :
proclaim the good news, '….Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
-and don’t take any money for it! In other words, “wherever you land, EVANGELIZE!” And take only what you need!
Jesus woke up. He looked at all the people, all those in need When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, and he realized that 12 could do more than 1 and that the whole world was desperate for good news. So he sent them out to take this good news. All the optional part of today’s gospel was how hard it was going to be on them to do this. He’s getting them ready for this unbelievable undertaking. And so he gives them the power and he gives them the message. And he sends them out. “wherever you land, EVANGELIZE!”
Bruce Larsen, a Presbyterian minister, has written a book entitled Ask Me to Dance, and in it he included the story of a member of his congregation who had come from another country. Pastor Larsen said of this person, “Her faith sparkled and the living water of the spirit flowed out of her soul to all around her”. He invited her to go with him to a seminar on the topic of evangelism. The leaders had prepared tables filled with all sorts of pamphlets and strategies and demographic studies, all aimed at reaching the un-churched in their area. At some point during the program the leaders turned to this woman and asked her to share some of the reasons that made the church so important and so vital in her home country. At first she was a bit intimidated by the crowds, but then she had this to say, “Well, we never gave pamphlets to people because we never had any. We just showed people by our life and example what it is like to be a Christian, and when they can see for themselves, then they want to be a Christian, too.”
Then they want to be a Christian, too.
No word in Christianity pulls up more negative images than the word, “evangelism”. You know what it means? Bringing good news. Why should that scare us? This is why we were made, this is who we are, this is our purpose-bring good news to all those who are struggling, striving, yearning, longing.
Another preacher writes, “When Jesus sent out laborers, he gave them specific instructions. They were to cast out demons, heal the sick, tell people about the kingdom of God, and raise the dead. In other words, they were to address people's greatest needs: mental and emotional stability, physical health, hopelessness, and fear of death.
Do you think you can do this? Meet people’s mental and emotional needs? Reach out to them in their physical well-being? Touch them when they are hopeless? Stand with them as they fear death? Do you think you were called to do this? Of course not! And yet….
Jesus said, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.' 10:8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons.
Why should that scare us? Why can’t it inspire us! Jesus doesn’t just give the power to those twelve 2000 years ago. He gave it to Brendan the Navigator. He gave it to
Bruce Larsen’s parishioner. And I think He gives it to us.
I was talking last evening in the restaurant to Wilma Petrasky’s granddaughter, Laura, a freshmen at Hope College. 18 years old. She just returned from 3 weeks in Cameroon on the west coast of Africa. Last year a group of students from Hope went into a village to show the people how to use simple water filtration systems in their homes to purify their water. One thing we have learned from the Cropwalk is that the single most deadly part of people’s lives around the world is clean water. These systems that the students put in this village were incredibly simple and yet very effective. Laura’s team went around and checked to see how the systems were working and if they made a difference in people’s lives. On average in this village 20 children die every year from parasites, worms, diarrhea, dehydration, and contaminated water. This past year, after putting in these systems, not one child died. Not one. These sand and concrete purification systems cost $12 per home. $12.
Laura is a freshman. 18 years old. “wherever you land, EVANGELIZE!”
This Strawberry Festival is a lot of work. I can’t believe how hard so many people work on it. It’s amazing. The money from the festival, half of it will go to an inreach project. And half will go to outreach-for instance-helping people have clean water.
You’re doing evangelism. You’re taking good news to people. This is what it looks like. You know the best thing I hear every year at the festival-it isn’t how much we made, how many pies we sold, or how many cheesecakes we made. The best thing I hear every year comes sometimes from crafters, or sometimes from customers. This is what I hear- “The people in your church are really nice, they were very kind to me.” And I always think the same thing, This is where we have landed-this is what we were meant to do.



Matthew 9:35-10:8, (9-23)
9:35 Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every sickness.
9:36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
9:37 Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few;
9:38 therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."
10:1 Then Jesus summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to cure every disease and every sickness.
10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon, also known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;
10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;
10:4 Simon the Cananaean, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed him.
10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans,
10:6 but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
10:7 As you go, proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.'
10:8 Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. You received without payment; give without payment.
10:9 Take no gold, or silver, or copper in your belts,
10:10 no bag for your journey, or two tunics, or sandals, or a staff; for laborers deserve their food.
10:11 Whatever town or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy, and stay there until you leave.
10:12 As you enter the house, greet it.
10:13 If the house is worthy, let your peace come upon it; but if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you.
10:14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet as you leave that house or town.
10:15 Truly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.
10:16 "See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
10:17 Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues;
10:18 and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles.
10:19 When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time;
10:20 for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.
10:21 Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death;
10:22 and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
10:23 When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next; for truly I tell you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.

sermon-June 8

Sermon-Year A-4 Pentecost-Proper 5 –June 8, 2008
The Cloud of Unknowing,
"O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
Every year close to Christmas, we invite the Trinity staff over on a Sunday afternoon. We talk, we eat, I give out gifts, and then I ask “the question”. (You have to understand Jenifer has been coming to these parties for over 20 years so she gets a little tired of “the question”.) The question changes every year, and I usually give it a fair amount of thought. Your favorite Christmas, what was your favorite gift, who do you miss the most. It varies. But I have found something out over the years, we don’t get asked “the question” very often in our lives-not legitimately, not because someone really wants to know. Lots of times people will ask, “the question” because they want to give us, “the answer”. This is really a favorite of clergy. Because I am going on sabbatical, and one of my goals is to listen to other people more, I have been using situations to ask people, “if you were given three months and a fair amount of money-what would you do.” At first, people can’t stop giving funny answers. But eventually, if I persist and let people know that I am serious, they will think about it. And this is my goal-to have people imagine, think, wonder. My hope is to push people into thinking about important things-to think about their lives, to think about themselves. When I was 19 and trying to party my way through college, someone actually began asking me “the question”. When someone finally asked me to think about something, that’s when my life began to change. Someone looked at me and said, “you’re better than this, who are you going to be?” That’s when my life changed. Someone took me seriously, someone asked me “the question”, someone wanted me to imagine a different kind of life.
Jesus is wandering through Israel. Walking along. He sees a man called Matthew, a tax collector. And he says to him, “Follow me.” And Matthew did. And it would cost Matthew his life. Jesus say and ate with Matthew, and I’ll bet you anything, he asked Matthew, “the question”. And Matthew followed him. What a moment that had to be, giving up his “so called” life because someone had finally taken him seriously. What we try to do in church, and fail way too often, is to say to people, “we take you seriously; who are you called to be?” And then wait-and see what answer is discovered. Usually when we say the words, “follow me” the next phrase someone will say, is “and I will make you fishers of people”. But here’s the question, who are you called to be. Jesus is always being praised for loving sinners. What do the Pharisees say today, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus never says, “leave them alone, they’re just doing their job.” He sits with them, eats with them, takes them seriously. He accepts them-but he loves them too much to leave them as they are. What question do you think he asked them?
The rest of the gospel doesn’t seem connected to the first part, except there’s one word. A leader of the synagogue comes to Jesus and tells Jesus that his daughter has died. And what does Jesus do? 19And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. To follow Jesus is to walk into situations that are difficult, hard, challenging. First Jesus meets a woman who has been bleeding for 12 years. Then he has to touch a little girl who is dead. Both experiences would have kept Jesus out of the temple for a long time-both times Jesus touched someone who was unclean-but he did not leave them as he found them. He healed the bleeding woman, he raised the little girl from the dead, and he called Matthew the sinner. All three times, Jesus walked into situations where people were unclean, ritually tainted, supposed to be ignored or abandoned by the community-and all three times he changed them. He did not run away, but he never left people the same.
God takes us more seriously than we take ourselves, imagine living a different kind of life, “you’re better than you think you are, who are you going to be, who are you going to follow?”

sermon-June 4

Sermon-Year A-3 Pentecost-Proper 4 –June 1, 2008
The Cloud of Unknowing,
"O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of that Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
If you enter the home of a traditional Jewish person, you will see on their door a small cylinder as you walk in. It is set at an angle , about this long. Verses of scripture are handwritten in a special style and placed in this scroll. The words are from Deuteronomy 6 and 11. And every time a person passes through the door they touch the mezuzah and then kiss the fingers that touched it, expressing love and respect for God and his teachings. It is not always easy to remember that learning is important, and so there has to be this reminder. Traditional Jews also wear something called Tefillin. Tefillin are small boxes attached by leather straps that are put on the forehead and on the biceps when a traditional Jew prays. Inside these small boxes are verses from scripture. These boxes are only worn during the morning prayers. It is not always easy to remember to pray, and so these boxes are worn as a reminder to pray, and also why someone prays. 11:18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and fix them as an emblem on your forehead.11:19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 11:20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
Today (at the 10am service) we will honor all those in our congregation who are graduating. It is quite an accomplishment to start out on a road, a direction, and finish it. It is not easy. There are so many things that rise up to challenge and distract when you are walking towards a distant goal. Some of the people we honor today have been working for their diploma or degree for a long long time. Many of them had to make great sacrifices to finish. Many of them worked at the same time that they were going to school. All of them wanted at times to quit. It was not easy. Some had to make tremendous sacrifices to achieve graduation. And for many of the people here, their families had to make great sacrifices for them to graduate. It was not easy. Today we honor those who have graduated, completed their course of study, demonstrated that they are committed to education-and to themselves. Today we honor their work and sacrifice and efforts. The sheepskins, the scrolls that they receive at graduation are symbols, powerful symbols, that learning and training and work and sacrifice are important. These are not put on the doorways. Sometimes they are framed and put on walls, and sometimes they are put away in attics, and we are tempted to think that they do not matter. But they testify that sacrifices were made, work was done, important learning was completed, and goals were achieved. We need to honor that, no matter how tempting it is to treat it as unimportant or unnecessary or pointless. In 1957, my father decided to go to college. He was working 70 hour weeks, with a wife and a son. He had to keep working full time while attending school. It was not easy. We all made great sacrifices for him to graduate. Even more than the learning , his degree taught me what you have to be willing to do for what is important to you. It was not easy.
Even more than learning today, we honor what people are willing to do to accomplish important goals. We honor their efforts, their work, their sacrifices, and their commitments. We honor their families, and we honor their goals. Today we honor that these people chose a hard path, and they finished it. And we are all the better for it. This is what we teach our children this day-that it is not the easy way that endures, nor the quick way that satisfies. We are teaching our children that sacrifice and work and commitment and goals and preparing for the future and working towards it is a rock to build our lives upon. It is not easy.
Reading of the names
And we are doing something special today-we are honoring all our acolytes. Five of our acolytes are graduating from high school this year. And it seemed an especially good time to give thanks to all of our acolytes for their service and ministry to us and with us.
As I call your name, please come forward.