Manger

from my message on 12/23/12 from Luke 2:8-20

Transformed.  That's the word that came to me.  We are going to transform these scraps of cloth into swaddling cloths as you pass them around and then tie them together.  This will give your hands something to do while I talk a little while.

We have been on a journey to the manger, to the birth of the Messiah, this Advent.  We have gone on this journey with the characters in the birth story.  I have given you hand motions to help you remember.  We saw Mary be transformed from a scared girl into the mother of the Christ, as she let go control, and unclenched her hands, saying, "I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be to me according to your word."  We encounter Joseph, whose rough, calloused hands, were transformed into hands of mercy, going way beyond what the law required to do what love is, by accepting Mary as his wife, and her child as his.  We met Elizabeth who was transformed from being a relative into a friend, as she open her hands and her heart to welcome Mary.  The hand motion is that of cradling a baby.  Today, we have the manger.   Seems pretty cold, compared to these persons.  It will take a few minutes to get to transformation.

We start at Manger Square today in Bethlehem.  You see the outside of the Church of the Nativity.  You see how the doorway has been filled in over the centuries.  This close up shows just how small the door is today.  Military people will tell you it was done for a defensive purpose.  Everyone is slowed down, trying to enter.  The army could hold its postion much more easily inside.  Today, it is called the door of humility.  Everyone must bow to enter into the sanctuary.  It is a good posture to be in as we approach the manger. Here is a picture of the traditional site of the manger.  It is at the back of the sanctuary and underneath it.  You see the 14 point gold star in the marble floor and all of the canles hanging nearby.  It doesn't do much for my soul.  Especially when you are rushed through like a herd of cattle.  The last time I was here in 2007, I was  a bus captain, responsible for some 41 persons.  Our guide had me read the passage from Luke I just read for you.  The whole time, he was going, "This is taking too long.  Speed it up!"  Real worshipful, huh?

Most of the time we think of a manger like the one we have on the altar table here.  A wooden box, filled with hay, all clean and pretty, is our picture.  Most likely, it was more like this picture of a stone trough.  It was feeding trough, cold, hard.

Here's my point.  God takes a feeding trough and makes it into the entry point of salvation.  If God can transform a manger into the birth place of the Messiah, then God can  transform just about anything.  Here, we take some water, just ordinary water.  I say a prayer over it, and it becomes the water of baptism.  We say that sins are washed away, that we are claimed by God as God's own chidren, that our identity is sure. Here, we take some bread and some grape juice, and I say  a prayer over it and it becomes the body and blood of Christ.  We take his very self into ourselves.  We are what we eat.  Here, in the story, the shepherds, modern day equivalents would be parking lot attendants, become evangelists.  They return home shouting good news.  Here, in the story, ordinary people, like us, become the actors in a holy drama.  God is about transformation.

I was transformed this past Monday.  I started the day early, arriving at the office about 7:15.  I had a memorial service that afternoon.  Trust me on this:  you don't want any surprises at such a service.  People are in enough grief and pain already.  You don't want to further hurt them.  So we had 3 musicians to coordinate, a video element to work in, 5 members of the family to speak, a worship bullet to get printed with no administrative assistant, a caterer to welcome.  I also did my emails, blog, and my twitter account ( I am up to 49 followers on Twitter!).  I had some other appointments and phone calls.  The memorial service went well.  The reception was lovely.  I went downton at 5 p.m. to First Baptist Church to help with the Mobile Loaves and Fishes dinner for the homeless.  I was assigned table 15.  The people, our neighbors, our family who live on the street started coming in at 5:30.  They expected to line up to get their food, but we greeted them and seated them at tables of 8.  I used my line, "Help me with your name."  I met Aubrey, and Tony and Rabbit.  We served them salad with 2 choices of dressing.  They got turkey with green beans and a baked potato with all the fixin's.  Well, one gentleman chided me by saying, "What, no chives!"  They got their choice of dessert:  pumpkin, or pecan, or apple pie.  You could get whipped cream topping.  We served them their drinks:  water, tea, coffee, or hot chocolate.  You know the poor man's fancy drink?  One half coffee and one half hot chocolate.  After  2 hours of serving, I left to go home at the end of a long day....and you know I wasn't tired at all.  I wasn't hungry at all.  I had been transformed.

What does this have to do with the hand motion of cradling a baby?  Isn't it wonderful to hold a child in your arms?  Some of you have children, or now grandchildren, or nieces or nephews.  It is precious.  One woman who joined our church a few years ago took our spiritual gifts inventory.  She found that she wanted to work with children.  We tried to find her a place with our Sunday School or Vacation Bible School, but it wasn't the right fit.  We finally found it at the NNICU at St. David's hospital.  She would hold the little babies, the preemies, in her arms.  She was in heaven. 

Today, as we come to the manger, I want you to imagine that you are the one who is being held.  The manger is the place where you are being held in the arms of God.  We bring those swaddling cloths to the manger now.  You are the one who is being covered by God's grace, secure and safe.  You are covered, forgiven, welcomed, blessed, protected. 

This is the good news I have to share with you today:  you are held in the arms of God, and you will never be let go!

Whose birthday is it?

from my message on Christmas Eve, 2012, from Luke 2:1-20

We are celebrating a birthday tonight?  Is is the birthday of Santa Claus? (NOO!!)  Is it the birthday of Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer?  (NOOOO!!)  Is it the birthday of Frosty the Snowman?  (NOOOOO!!)  Well, who's birthday is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday!!)

Ok, then let's sing that "Happy Birthday" song.  (Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday Dear Jesus, Happy Birthday to you)

Thanksgiving holiday was coming up.  The teacher of the pre-school Sunday School class was trying to teach about this holiday.  She wanted to be playful in her style, so she said, "Let's see Thanksgiving.  That's the day when we think about all the stuff we have and how we want more than anyone else has and how we don't care about anyone else but ourselves and..."
"No!" the kids started to yell.  "NOOO!!!"
Then one little boy announced, "That's not Thanksgiving, Miss Michelle.  That's Christmas!"

I know we think that Christmas is our birthday, but whose is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday.) 

What else do you have at a birthday party?  You have presents, right?  Well, tonight we are going to offer gifts to Jesus.  How do we do that today?  We are going to take an offering for our mission home in San Antonio that works with mothers and young babies and families that want to adopt these babies.  Because whose birthday is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday)

What else do you have at a birthday party?  You have cake, right?  Well, tonight we are going to have the sacrament of communion, some bread and grape juice.  And because it is Jesus birthday, everyone is welcome, even little children.

A group of first graders got together and decided to write their own version of the nativity.  It was more modern than the traditional dama.  Oh, there was the familiar cast members:  Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, the star, the angel.  But Mary was nowhere to be seen.  Suddenly, some loud moans could be heard from behind the bales of hay. Evidently, Mary was about to give birth.  Soon, the doctor arrived, complete with white coat and stethoscope.  Joseph, with a look of relief on his face, took the doctor straight to Mary.  Then he started pacing.  After a few moments, the "doctor" came out with a big smile upon his face.  "Congratulations, Joseph," he said, "It's a God."

Whose birthday is it?  It's Jesus' birthday.  A God born a human being like us.

What else do you have at a birthday party?  You have candles, right?  Well, we are going to have candles too.  We are going to watch as this whole room fills with the light of Christ. When we blow them out, we are going to be the light of Christ in the world.  It's Jesus' birthday, and we are going to keep telling the world that until He comes again.

Whose birthday is it?  (It's Jesus' birthday)

pastoral prayer

12/16/12 We had our annual Lessons and Carols service, so I did not preach on Sunday.  I did pray the following:

Gracious God, Merciful Savior, Ever Present Spirit,
Today along with the Christmas carols we sing, we also sing a song of lament.  We cry, we weep with the people Newtown, Connecticut.  Their tears are ours.  Their children are ours.

We weep with all of the innocent ones who get caught between the fighting sides of civil war, who get ground down by poverty, disease, famine, loneliness.  We join our voices with Adam and Eve, who from the very beginning wept when Cain took his brother Abel's life.

Today, our only hope, God is that the Christmas carols are true.  That you have come and are coming in Jesus, that you took on our flesh, that you join us in our vulnerability.  We sing and believe that you came as a baby--like us, a wondering child--like us, a suffering human being--like us.

Today, we hold our children, and all children near us, near you.  We weep....and we hope.  May the Christmas carols be true.

Amen.

Mary's Visit to Elizabeth

from my message on 12/9/12, from Luke 1:39-45

You've got a friend.  I can almost hear James Taylor singing it.  You've got a friend.

Today is the third message in the Journey series.  We are going with the characters in the Christmas story towards the birth of the Messiah.  We looked at Mary, whose hands were open, as she said, "let it be unto me as you have spoken.  I am the servant of the Lord."  Last week we encountered Joseph whose rough and calloused hands were full of mercy as he went beyond the law to do what love is in taking Mary as his wife and the child she was carrying as his own.  Each week, there has been a memory device with the hands.  Today, we encounter Elizabeth whose hands, whose arms are open wide in welcoming Mary.  Elizabeth is a friend to Mary in her time of need.

If you were in trouble, scared, didn't know what to do, whom would you call?  Especially, if you were a pregnant teenager, no husband, confused, lots of questions, to whom would you go?  Mary went to Elizabeth.

Today, we have with us Sarah Reiter from the Methodist Mission Home in San Antonio.  She happens to be an Aggie, class of '12.  The MMH deals with people like Mary, pregnant teenagers.

(Sarah then tells the story of how MMH got started as a madam at a brothel in San Antonio had a conversion experience at a revival meeting.  With the help of Travis Park UMC, she transformed her brothel into a home for wayward girls.  This was in 1895.  More recently a young woman was pregnant, in desperate need.  She had no mother, no spouse.  Her father didn't know what to do.  The young woman came to MMH where she got medical care, counseling, education, job training, and support.  The MMH found a family that was eager to adopt the child.  The mother had only one request and that was that she could name the child.  "I can't give this child anything else in this life, but I can give a name."

Then Sarah told a story of other services that the MMH provides.  A young man was about to graduate from high school.  At at pool party, he had an accident, and nearly drowned.  However, he went without oxygen long enough to severely impair him.  He was sent to the MMH.  Not much chance was given him to function well or even to speak.  He wrote, "I will walk across the stage at my graduation and I will give the speech."  Four years later, he did!  Not only that he gave glory to God. "This has been a blessing to me.  I was headed in the wrong direction, going with the wrong crowd, getting into drugs.  Now I have my life back.")

Do you feel the open arms that welcome and accept?  We will be taking an offering on Christmas Eve for the MMH.  Now you know how it will be helping real people.

Sometimes, we are Mary.  We are the ones who need help.  We need a friend.

Mary visited Elizabeth.  Elizabeth didn't judge or ask questions.  She simply welcomed her with open arms.  She was a friend.  She blessed her.

She blessed in loud speech.  The word in Greek is really "yelled."  She shouted out loud the word that Mary needed to hear.  Sometimes that's what we do as Elizabeth.  We yell our blessing.  A few week ago, Erin had an episode.  It was at our Wed. night supper.  Something wasn't right.  Erin couldn't speak.  Rich saw the problem.  He shouted, "Shannon!"  Shannon is Rich's wife.  They started getting Erin to the hospital.  Linda was there talking to her physician husband on the phone getting counsel as they drove Erin to the hospital.  I am happy to report Erin is with us in worship today.  She is fine.

Sometimes our word of blessing is quieter.  Many years ago I read a short story in a devotional magazine for youth the UMC did, called "Alive Now!"  The story was written by a chaplain who worked at a youth shelter.  Ruby had come in all tough, trash-talking, chain-smoking.  She had her walls up.  No one could come close to her.  One night Ruby came to the chaplain.  "I heard that Jesus loved sinners.  I heard that he even forgave prostitutes.  Is that right?"  The chaplain said, "I started to give her my sermon.  You know the one about how God hates the sin, but loves the sinner.  But this time I kept my mouth shut, and simple said, 'Yes.'"  Ruby cried.  Sometimes all we need is one quiet word.

Sometimes our inspired speech is actually silence.  You may remember I did my work in spiritual direction at Boston College, a great Catholic Jesuit university.  One of my teachers was  a world renowned spiritual director, having written books and given lectures around the world.  In class one day, she confessed the following:

I was giving spiritual direction to a man.  He was sitting beside me.  Maybe I was tired.  Maybe his story wasn't all that interesting, but I must have fallen asleep.  All I know is that I woke up as he was saying, "that what I needed to share today."  I felt so guilty, falling asleep on him.  I muttered some, "oh yes," or something.  Then he said, "Thanks for being so quiet today.  I really just needed to get that out uninterrupted.  Thanks for just listening."

We think it is about us, but the primary actor here is the Holy Spirit.  Elizabeth has inspired speech as she welcomes and blesses Mary.  But even the baby in Elizabeth's womb recognized the baby in Mary's womb and leaps for joy without a word!  May we be open to others and to the leading of the Spirit.

We can learn how to be more welcoming.  We can learn how to listen and to care.  We can learn how to bless.  We can learn how to become Elizabeth.  Stephen Ministers get training in exactly this arena.  Hear Stuart's witness.

Video segment of Stuart, who was an efficient, effective officer in an energy company for 35 years, who through Stephen Ministry training has had a sea change in learning not to give answers or counsel, but to simply listening and caring for another person, letting God set the tempo and letting Jesus be the cure-giver.

It is true what that old hymn says, "What a friend we have in Jesus."  But it is also true, "What a Jesus we have in a friend."  That's the good news I have to share today.

Joseph of Bethlehem

from my sermon on Dec. 2, 2012, from Matthew 1:18-24

(I have my Austin Habitat for Humanity tee shirt on.  I walk up to a plain wooden bench with some wood on it.  I start sanding a board.)

Do the right thing.  That's my creed.  Those are the words that I live by.  My name is Joseph.  How many words do I say in the Christmas story?.....not one, nada, zip, zero!  That's just fine by me.  Actions speak louder than words.  I need to use a few words to tell you my story.

Look at my hands.  They are rough, calloused.  They are working man's hands.  They are used to holding tools as I shape wood and stone.  People expect me to do the right thing.  When they have a leaky roof, I fix it right the first time.  When they need a door hung, I fix it right the first time.  When they have a farm implement that needs repair, I fix it right the first time.  People depend upon me to do the right thing.

So our families contraced together for Mary and me to become engaged.  That's how it was done.  My mom and dad talked to her mom and dad, and it was done.  I hardly knew her.  But it was the way things had been done forever.  It was the right thing to do.  She was in Nazareth.  I was in Bethlehem.  After a year or two, we would become married. 

But when she visited her kinswoman Elizabeth in a nearby town, I went to see Mary.  Something was different about her.  You could tell just by looking at her.  She told me that she had wonderful news.  She blurted it right out. She said, "I'm pregnant."  I was crushed....hurt, disappointed...angry.  I felt betrayed.  I knew it wasn't my baby.  I hadn't known Mary in that way.  Mary tried to calm me down, "It's alright.  I am carrying a child because the Holy Spirit came upon me and caused me to become pregnant."  I replied, "Right, I am sure that happens all the time."

I was so mad I wanted to hit something.  I wanted to hit Mary.  But I looked at my hands.  They are not cruel hands. 

But what is the right thing to do?  The law clearly says, I have taken my hand over the Torah, reading it many times, in Deuteronomy 22:23-24, "If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married and a man meets here in town and lies with her, you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death."  By law, it is the right thing to do.

But I looked at my hands.  They are not hands that could kill Mary.  And then it hit me, they are certainly not hands that could kill a baby.  To kill Mary would mean that the child she was carrying would be killed also.

What is the right thing to do?  My hands  had held the holy scriptures which talked of a God who loved.  Even when Adam and Eve did the unthinkable, God did not destroy them.  He cast them out of the garden, but he also let them live, and even made for them clothes.  When Cain killed his brother Abel, God did not kill him Cain, but gave him a mark, so that others would not kill Cain.  God destroyed the earth by a flood, but saved a remnant, Noah and family on the ark.  It seems that God kept finding a way to show love and bring new life to God's people.  I remember what the prophet Micah said, "What does the LORD require?  But to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."

The scriptures call me a righteous man.  You may think that righteousness means keeping the law, but what it really means is "right relationships."  Righteousness means goes beyond keeping the law to showing love.

I resolved to divorce Mary quietly.  That way she and the child would live.  All of the blame, all of the shame would be upon me.  People would see me as one who had gotten her pregnant and then deserted her.  I would be known as the one who did not keep promises.  No longer would I be known for doing the right thing.  Although before God, I knew it to be the right thing.  I had peace about it... shalom.  I was settled.  I could live with my decision.

It's funny.  I have always had dreams.  You would think that a practical person like myself who could look at wood and see the grain of it and fashion just the right implement would have nothing to do with dreams, but no.  I am like my namesake, Joseph of Genesis, who saved our people like ago, because he had dreams and could interpret dreams.  God spoke to me through an angel in my dreams.  God essentially said that I should take Mary as my wife, and that I should take the child as my own.  I was to name him Jesus, which means "the Lord saves."  That this child would be known as "Emmanuel," "God with us."  I knew that I had done the right thing.  I got confirmation from God.  I lived into the meaning of my name, Joseph, which means "Increaser."  I was increasing God's presence, God's love in the world.

Look at your hands.  I imagine that they are not rough and calloused like mine.  May they always be soft.  May they always go beyond the law demands to do what love is.    Who are the ones you hold in your hands?  May your hands always do the right thing.

Mary of Nazareth

from my message on Nov. 25, 2012 from Luke 1:26-38

The Journey.  Today we start a 5 week series that includes small group study and messages in worship using a book by Adam Hamilton entitled The Journey.  This fits in well with our emphasis on a path of discipleship where this church is trying to help people fall in love with Jesus, grow deeper in relationship with Him, until that love spills over into the lives of others.  Now, I know today is not Black Friday, or Small Business Saturday, or Cyber Monday.  It is not even the first Sunday of Advent, which starts next week, but there are 5 lessons in the book, so we need to start the journey today.

Each week, we will be looking at one of the characters in the Christmas story.  We are going with them towards the coming of the Messiah Jesus.  Today, we start with Mary.  Today, I have 2 questions for you  and 1 memeory device which involves your hands.

The first questions is Where are you from?  Say the answer out loud.  Is it the place where you were born?  The hometown where you grew up?  Is it the military?  Sometimes people tell me they are from the Air Force, because they moved around so much.  Is it a business?  Sometimes people tell me they grew up in the oil patch.  Is it your family?  Or your place in the family?  Is it the place where you went to college? 

Mary grew up in Nazareth.  Adam Hamiliton in his book captures very well just how small and insignificant Nazareth was.  Today it is a thriving city, but back then it may have had 100-400 people in it.  They may have lived in caves that they dug out of the soft limestone.  Mary may have been 12 or 13 years old.  She was a nobody in nowheresville.  She was a hick from the sticks.

The start of the memory device involves you tightening your hands into fists.  It will get tiring very fast.  Try it.  Sometimes we hold onto where we are from as the most important thing about us.  We hold onto our education, our place in the family, what somebody said about us, the past, a diagnosis....as if that determined who we are.  You can relax your clenched fists.  Where you are from is not the most important thing about you.

The second question is Where are you going?  Mary of Nazareth was visited by an angel.  This young, unmarried girl was greeted with Hail O Favored One, the Lord is with you.  You are going to bear a son who will be the Savior of the world.  He will be great, the Son of God, and holy.  Mary raises her hands and asks How can this be since I am a virgin?  The angel replies Nothing is impossible with God.  Mary does not have clenched fists, she relaxes her hands in a downward pose and says, I am the servant of the Lord.  May it be to me according to your word. 

Can you let go with your hands?  This is the hardest thing to do for American Christians...to release, to submit, to give up control.  We think we are so competent, so powerful.  We say, We got this Jesus.  If we need you, we will call you.  Can you let go with your hands?

This was a good message.  The clenching of fists to illustrate our trying to hold on and the letting go as a sign of humility, of trusting in God.  On Wednesday, we went to Houston to celebrate Thanksgiving with Cathy's family.  M.D. Anderson is only 17 miles from my in-laws' home.  We have 2 persons from this congregation at M.D. Anderson now.  How often does that happen?  So I went to see them on Wednesday.  The complex is massive.  Even though I am a male, I asked for directions, and found helpful people.  I went to elevator E, tehe 10th floor in the main bldg. to visit Adam, a young man, student at TCU.  We have had many prayers for him.  Phil and Laura, his parents were there.  I have some good news to share.  Adam's rare cancer is responding to his treatments.  He has some tests and scans scheduled for this next week.  If all goes well, he could come back to Austin this next week!

Then I found Michelle.  She happened to be in the same main bldg., down on the first floor.  When I got there, she was just coming out of her appt.  Not so good news, her cancer has not responded to any of the chemo's.  She had just that moment signed the papers to enter some new drug protocol.  Over her lunch of broccoli cheese soup she told me that she was not ready to give up or give in.  She has her parents there in the Houston area.  Her son has transferred to a school there.  Her employer has found work for her there.  Michelle is part of a cancer support group.  She told me the people were at all different stages of coping.  She told me of cancer humor in the example of sometimes playing the "cancer card."  She would be in a line with a crowd, and say, I feel so bad because of my chemo treatments.  Instantly, she would find herself at the head of the line.

When the subject gets touchy, Michelle could change topics.  By the way, she has given me permission to tell her story.  So she asked me how things were at church.  I told her about the start of this new series, the Journey, and how this first week was about Mary.  Mary, who did not clench her fists, but let go, and said, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be to me.  How Mary offered herself in submission and carried the child who was to be the Savior of the world.  Michelle offered how easy pregnancy was for her, how her body took over, how she knew just what to do.  I said that I hoped that would be the case as she faced this cancer now, that her body, her soul, her mind, her spirit would know just what to do.  That she could let go.  She said that Mary's story was not such a happy one.  She was there at the cross, watching her son die.  I said, You're right.  The journey is not just to Bethlehem, but also to Golgotha, to the cross.  But that is not the end of the story either, because on the third day, Jesus was raised from the dead.  Mary's letting go was not just for her; it was for all of humanity.  The only way for salvation to come into the world was for her to let go of her son, for life, for death, for eternal life.  I prayed that Michelle could let go also. 

Where are you from?  What are you holding onto today?  Can you clench your fists?  I wonder can you control your child?  your anger?  the fiscal cliff?  that old hurt?  the unfairness?  the diagnosis?  the civil war in Syria? 

Where are you going?  Can you open your hands?  Can you say Let it be?  It is interesting that Mary never identifies herself as Mary of Nazareth.  She says about herself, I am the servant of the Lord.  Let it be.  She has given us an example as followers of Jesus of letting go of our agendas and timelines to do what God has in store for us.  Let it be so.

The God Particle: F1 Race

From my message on Nov. 18, 2012, the Formula 1 Race weekend in Austin, from Ecclesiaste 9:11 and Hebrews 12:1-2

Early in the service, at the announcement time, Diane asks if anyone has seen Pastor Lynn.  Jonathan answers from the sound board that we have a live video feed of my getting ready for the F1 Race.  There is a scene of me getting in to a real race suit and putting on my helmet.   A little later before the offering, there is another video clip of me getting into my Prius, and taking laps around the track.  Right after the reading of the scripture, there is a third video clip of me pulling into the parking lot, finding a parking place, and running toward the door of the sanctuary.  Then I actually run inside the back door of our sanctuary dressed in the racing suit, carrying my helmet, and wearing my gloves.  I wave at the people, set my helmet and gloves on the altar table.

I feel the need....the need for speed.  You know me.  You know I am all about speed.  Faster is better.  Getting points, winning, isn't faster better?

We update our computers all the time, because we want the fastest microprocessor.  Connecting to the internet, we want the fastest connection.  Our smart phones, now 3G is no longer good enough.  We demand 4G.  When it comes to eating, we want fast food.  Speed limits in Texas, you gotta love Texas State Highway Toll 130.  Legal speed limit is now 85 miles per hour.

That's why I got this suit. I borrowed this from Hector Ruiz.  It is the real deal.  It is built for speed.  I first tried it on in my office to see if it would fit.  I had my wife Cathy there to get her opinion.  When I put it on, she went,  "oooooh," and started running her hands over the fabric.  I said, "Not so fast honey.  Not here,  Not now." 

Is faster always better?  I heard a piece on National Public Radio about an internet cafe that only had dial up connections.  The article said that our high speeds were overstimulating our brains, causing sleep deprivation and anxiety.  This internet cafe with its slow speeds and waiting actually gave time for the brain to process what was going on.  It was relaxing and healing.

Is fast food good for you?  In America, we have problems with obesity, many times associated with our rapid consumption of empty calories.  Heart disease, high blood pressure, and other ailments may be linked to our fast food culture.

And driving fast is not always the best.  On state toll road 130, you can drive 85 mph until you hit a feral hog.  Talk about thinning the herd, you can do that in two ways in one accident on Texas SH 130.

Is faster always better?  The book of wisdom we know as Ecclesiastes says the race is not always to the swift.  What is the point of going faster?  This leads me to slow down and tell you a story.  It is called  A Pointless Story.

A POINTLESS STORY


In the beginning God created not one or two but a whole bunch of us. Lots
of us. Because God knows that we love to play.
So we played - all day and into the night. We splashed in the rivers. We
rolled down the hillsides. We ran with the wind.

Until the day the snake came. At least they told us it was a snake. It might
not have been a snake. It might have been someone in a three-piece suit
with a cellular phone. Or it could have been a theologian with a very fat
book. But what they told us was that it was a snake.

And the snake came to us, to all of us who were playing on the hillside and
splashing in the water, rolling and playing and tumbling, and said, "This is
foolish! You are wasting time. None of this makes any sense unless you
learn to keep score."

We had no idea what the snake meant. But then the snake said something
really interesting. The snake said, "Whoever gets the most points will get
this apple!" But we had no idea what points were. So the snake said, "I will
teach you."

The snake taught us how to keep points with our running and our jumping
and our climbing, so that whoever climbed highest got points, and whoever
ran fastest got points, and whoever could roll down the hill fastest got
points. Some things however, like frolicking, were too hard to score. So we
gave them up all together.

Soon we were keeping score for everything we did. We chalked up the points
for everything. We kept track so that we would know who had the most
points because, surely, all of us wanted to get the apple.

Soon we were spending so much time keeping score that we didn't have
time to play.

Then God came into the garden. And God was wroth. God was very, very
wroth. And God told us that we would have to leave the garden. Not only
that - God told us that we were not going to live for ever, like we thought we
would.

Well, it doesn't matter to me. It's God who didn't understand things! My
cumulative lifetime score is now 12,263. By the time I die, it will probably be
even more! We were like God's slaves in the garden. We had to do
everything that God told us to do. It was the snake who taught us to keep
score, and now I'm teaching the children to keep score. I think they could
reach 15,000. Maybe 20,000. Now we are free to make as many points as
we can, to keep making points till the day we die, and to teach all our
children and our grandchildren how to make points.

I'm really grateful to the snake.

God kept trying to find us and to slow us down. God kept saying things like
"Remember; remember the strangers. Remember the widows and orphans.
Remember when you cut your fields to leave some at the edges, to leave
some for the sojourner in your land." That was no way to get ahead.
And so we perfected our score-keeping with a vengeance. God told us there
were only two things we really needed to remember. God said, "Love me
and love your neighbour." But we said, who on earth can play a game with
only two rules? So we wrote pages and pages and pages and pages of rules,
and pages more!

"Remember the Sabbath," God said. We didn't have time to rest. We had to
keep score. We had to keep racking up the points. I want our children to get
far better than my cumulative lifetime score of 12,263. God didn't
understand that kind of game at all.

God gave us such tiny little words. "A shoot will form from the stump of
Jesse." What sort of word is that - a "shoot"? "A little child shall lead them,"
God said. Is that any help?

And then an ordinary fellow appeared from Nazareth - we said to ourselves,
did any winner ever come from Nazareth? God breathed on him in some
particular way so that when he stood up in his hometown synagogue, he
read the word from Isaiah as though it was about him! "The Spirit of God
has anointed me," he said. And then do you know what he did?

He went up to people like fishermen and whispered in their ear, "You don't
need points!" And he sat down beside a Samaritan woman at the well and
told her everything about her loser sort of life and said, "You don't need
points either!" Then he sat down with Nicodemus, a teacher of the Law, and
said to him, "You don't need points, Nicodemus." To Mary and Martha, to
Joanna who was married to a very high official, to Susannah, Mary
Magdalene,[to Zaccheus,] to all of them he said, "You don't need points!"

And those who gathered around him, listening to what he said about the
kingdom of God being in the midst of them, soon looked at each other and
him and said, "This kingdom is pointless!"

Well, he didn't say a thing except to smile. They had pointless banquets
where the guest lists were thrown away. They had pointless picnics on the
hillside where everyone got plenty to eat, and there was still some left over.
They even had a pointless parade into the city with children leading the way
and people waving palms instead of swords. How pointless can you get!

But the snake, or the one in the three piece suit, or the theologian with the
heavy book - I can't remember who it was, but it was someone with friends
in high places - said, "This will never do. This will never do."

And so shortly after that parade, they put him on trial. And they stopped him
good as dead.

And they sealed the place where they laid him to rest with a huge stone so
that not even a whisper could escape that would ever say to anybody "You
don't need points." And that was that.

Except that morning-- This is strange. That Easter morning some women came
running to us, breathless, yet somehow full of breath. And they said to us,
"You don't need points!"

It was enough to make us think that that word had never died. But we said,
"You've got to be crazy!" And we sent them away. And as they left, they
were frolicking. I am not kidding - they were frolicking!

Did you see where they went?

(This story / sermon was adapted from one written by Barbara Lundblad, Assistant Professor of
Preaching at Union Theological Seminary, New York It appeared in the December 1999 issue of the
President's Report of The Center for Progressive Christianity (TCPC). Barbara Lundblad had adapted
this tale from the 1998 TCPC Forum, from stories of "The Pointless People" told by Lutheran pastor
and theologian Dan Erlander, who in turn found his inspiration in Ann Herbert's retelling of the
creation story.)

Is faster always better?  I went to see my Spiritual Director recently.  She listened to my story.  She wove her hands round and round in front of her.  She said, "I dont' know what this means, but this is what I see going on in your life."  I laughed.  "That is too funny.  I am preaching about the F1 face this Sunday, where the cars go around and around, faster and faster, and never get anywhere, except to get points."  You need to know that I have taken the last 2 days off, to slow down, and get out of this going faster.

How does this connect to the God Particle?  The Higgs Boson was discovered because of particle accelerators that flung protons at each other on a circular track at near the speed of light.  The collision of these protons revealed the evidence that there might exist this God Particle, something that has mass and holds the universe together.

 I am afraid that much of our running around, faster and faster, results in collisions but without any positive results. I am praying that in our running around faster and faster, we might collide with Jesus, our God Particle, who holds us together.  I am praying that he might slow us down.  This time of worship might be the most important hour that you are spending this week.  That daily prayer time or reflection upon scripture might be the most important moments of the day.  Slow down.  Remember to take sabbath time.  Stop running in circles.  Stop trying to earn points.  Start running with Jesus.  Heb. 12:1-2, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.

The good news I have to share is that faster is not always better.  Slow down.

the God particle: Love

from my message on Veterans Day, Nov. 11, 2012, from Mark 12: 28-34

You are loved.  No matter what else you get from this message, don't miss this, you are loved.  That's what God was trying to say to us in Jesus Christ, that we are loved.  God became flesh, to meet us where we are to show us we are  loved.  You are loved, whether you are a Republican.....or a Democrat.  You are loved whether you are a Texas Longhorn or an Iowa State Cyclone.  I am not even going to talk about Texas A & M.  Yes, you are loved even if you are an Aggie.

Last week we started a sermon series on the God Particle, the Higgs Boson.  This subatomic particle seems to have mass and it seems to provide attraction forces within the atom, in short, it holds things together.  I was reading an article this past week that was trying to come up with an analogy for the Higgs Boson.  The article called "cosmic molasses," something sticks things together.  My analogy is that Jesus is our God Particle.  Jesus brings God and humanity together.  Jesus brings us together, and makes us community.  Jesus holds us together by his love.

In this scripture passage Jesus is challenged to summarize the law into one commandment.  Many religious leaders had been trying to entrap Jesus in his speech, but this seeker seems to be sincere.  It was a common debate question among religious scholars of that time.  Jesus could not be limited to one commandment.  He needed two.  The first is love God with all of one's being, and the second is to love one's neighbor as oneself.

You may find yourself resistent to being told that you must love.  Can love be commanded?  One on-line commentator I really like is Brian Stoffregeg, a Lutheran pastor.  He imagines the following scene:  A girl and a boy are on their first date.  She looks over at him.  She is thinking to herself:  I like this guy. He is handsome, charming.  I could see life together with him.  How to get him to love me?  She then says in a strong, stern voice:  I command you to love me.  You will marry me.  We will live happily ever after!

Does that work?  No.  We remember that God commands us to love, because, and only because, God has first loved us.  You remember the 10 commandments.  They were expanded to 613 commandments (applications) in the Old Testament.  The question is not an idle one about which is the greatest.  But the context of the commandments is always love.  When God gives the 10 commandments, it is like this:  I am the God who saved you, I delivered you out of bondage in Egypt.  The 10 commandments are literally in Hebrew the 10 words.  They are the words of life.  When children in Godly Play learn about the 10 commandments, they are called the 10 best ways of living.  God loves us first.  God wants us to live.  We can love God and others because God first loved us.

I can't make you love.  I can invite you to love.  I can challenge you to love.  That's why we emphasize a path of discipleship.  We want you to fall in love with Jesus.  We want you to grow your soul so large in love, that this love spills over your life into the lives of others. 

It is hard to love others.  It has been especially hard lately.  Something happened this past Tuesday that was very divisive.  As Americans, we have been engaged in bitter rhetoric in these elections.  Watch this YouTube video of this little girl.
(little girl crying because she is sick of hearing about Bronco Bama and Mitt Romney.  The mom assures here that it will soon be over."

We have been driven to tears.  Maybe it hasn't been too bad here in Texas.  Thank God we don't live in a battleground state like Ohio or Florida....robocalls, TV and radio ads....neighbors not being able to talk with neighbors...family members alienated from one another.  Did you get the imagery?  Battleground states.  The metaphor is that of war.  We are trying not just to win, but to defeat, to destroy the enemy.

Is there any way out of this?  I think a clue may be found in this particular day, Veterans Day.  I did the research:  World War I ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in the year 1918.  It was called Armistice Day.  It was to mark the end of the "war to end all wars."  That name continued until 1954 when it was renamed Veterans Day.  This is not to be confused with Memorial Day, a day to remember those who died in war.  Veterans Day is to remember all those who served in the military.

Do those who serve in the military serve the Republican party?  or the Democratic party?  or the Libertarian? or the Green?  No, they serve their country.  They serve a higher purpose.  They serve a cause greater than themselves.  They lay their lives on the line.  They sacrifice.  Their example of serving comes so close to the example of Christ who offered his life for us.  Veterans give us a way to love one another beyond our differences.

Today, can we love veterans?  I would love for you to make me wrong in my research.  Of homeless men in the USA, 33% are veterans.  There is PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, something that has only been recently diagnosed.  There are brain injuries and all other manner of wounds.  Veterans have a higher rate of depression, economic troubles, suicide.  If we want to fight about something, let's fight for understanding, education, inclusion of returning veterans.  

I am glad that some of you have become advocates for veterans.  You have worked with the Red Cross.  You have worked with programs that use horses to help veterans literally get back in the saddle and gain confidence.  You have worked with dogs and other pets as a way of connecting with veterans.  You have hired veterans in your firms.  You have shown love.

I have a great quote from Frederick Buechner that captures what Jesus our God Particle was trying to communicate to us:

“The love for equals is a human thing--of friend for friend, brother for brother. It is to love what is loving and lovely. The world smiles. The love for the less fortunate is a beautiful thing--the love for those who suffer, for those who are poor, the sick, the failures, the unlovely. This is compassion, and it touches the heart of the world. The love for the more fortunate is a rare thing--to love those who succeed where we fail, to rejoice without envy with those who rejoice, the love of the poor for the rich, of the black man for the white man. The world is always bewildered by its saints. And then there is the love for the enemy--love for the one who does not love you but mocks, threatens, and inflicts pain. The tortured's love for the torturer. This is God's love. It conquers the world.”

I have seen you love one another.  I have seen the God Particle, Jesus, in our midst.  May we live into our identity.  May Jesus hold us together.

the God particle: Unbound

from my message on All Saints' Sunday, Nov. 4, 2012, from John 11:32-44

I hate to admit it, but since I am in the Lord's house on the Lord's day, I must confess to you that there are whole weeks that go by without me thinking about subatomic particles.  How about you?  So this summer I was really thrilled when 2 labs, the Fermilab in the USA and the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, come up with results that pointed to the existence of the Higgs Boson, the so-called God particle.

As human beings we have always been filled with curiousity about the universe:  of what it is made, what holds it together.  A long time ago, it was pretty simple.  There were four elements:  earth, air, water, fire.  Then more elements were identified:  iron, copper, tin, lead, gold, silver, etc.  It has only been fairly recently that scientists said that all things were made up of atoms, so small you can't see them.  Then we started discovering that atoms were made of neutrons, protons, and electrons.  Now we are finding sub-atomic particles.  They have great names like photons, leptons, and gluons.  My favorites are quarks.  There are six different kinds of quarks:  Top, bottom, up, down, charm, and strange.  I am not making this up. 

So what is the big deal about the Higgs boson?  There was a problem in the universe.  The atom did seem to have enough mass.  There was nothing to hold the atom together.  Peter Higgs in 1964 theorized that there needed to be 3 particles, a w boson, a z boson, and one that came to bear his name, for matter to hang together.  Leon Lederman in a 1993 book called the Higgs boson the God particle.  Most scientists don't like the name.  But Lederman knew that it would have a popular appeal.  He also said something interesting, "There is an old story of how things began.  How beautiful is the universe God made."

On this All Saints' Sunday, I ask what holds us together?  Maybe the better questions is Who holds us together?  I believe it is the One who said, "I am the resurrection and the life."  I believe it is the One who said, "Lazarus, come out."  I believe it the One who said, "Unbind him, and let him go."

Lazarus really died.  We know about death.  It is real to us.  We grieve.   We cry.  We miss persons. We experience loss.  Mary and Martha cried over the death of their brother.  Even Jesus wept, in the shortest verse in the Bible.  Jesus is also greatly disturbed, in a word that has connotations of anger.    Death is real.

But I have some good news today.  It involves turning to a neighbor, maybe even touching a neighbor, holding hands like we do when we sing our benendiction song, "Go now in peace."  Is that person real?  I am here to witness to you that the communion of saints, all those who have died in the faith, are that real, and are that close to us.  Jesus is our God particle.  He is all God and all human.  He has brought together the divine and the human.  He is the resurrection and the life.  He has brought life out of death.  We say in the Apostles' Creed that we believe in the communion of saints, the resurrection of the body,and the life everlasting.  Jesus says to us, "Be unbound from your grief, loss, fear of death, and be bound to me and to one another as the communion of saints."

Understand this:  We are the communion of saints.  Not just those who have died, but us, right here, right now.  One of the most common term for a follower of Christ in the early church was saint.  A saint is not just one who passed the Roman Catholic test and got up on a stained glass window.  A saint is one who is holy.  Don't be scared by this.  In the Old Testament, things and people became holy by coming near what was holy.  It was the nearness factor.  So sheep and oxen and grain would come from the fields and be offered on the altar, and they would become holy.  People would enter the tabernacle or the temple, and they would become holy.  It is not about how good we are.  It is about how close we are to Jesus. 

What does Lazarus do to be holy?  Nothing!  He is as good as dead!  It is by coming close to Jesus that he is made holy.  So I would have you be unbound of your perfectionism, your rule-keeping, your over-functioning.  I would have you be bound to Jesus who sets you free.  We come close to Jesus this day as we approach this table where we take his body and his blood into our very being.  Jesus is our God particle.

I am not afraid of science.  I love what the Jesuits say.  That order in the Roman Catholic Church embraced all fields of study.  They did so because they found God in everything.  As I prepared this message, I found that there are still more problems to solve in physics, like dark matter, and unified field theory, or the "theory of everything."  I am sure that we will find God in absolutely everything.  Be unbound from fear to be bound to Christ.

Downton Abbey

from my message on Oct 28, from PBS series, from Eph. 6:5-9 and Mark 10:41-45

(show video clip of servants bustling through the large house, cleaning, straightening, making meals)

How many of you have seen Downton Abbey?  Not as many as the other shows on PBS.  This is the last in a series of sermons that begin with a program found on PBS and the situation found there, and then we work back to the scriptures.  Cathy and I watch this show, usually on Sunday nights at 8 p.m.  The third season starts in January, 2013.  We love the subtle glances that convey so much meaning.  We love the nuances of languages.  We are Anglophiles.  We love all things British.

If you haven't watched the show, it is all about relationships.  We have the landed gentry upstairs.  We have the servant class downstairs.  It made me think about classes, about how we put people into categories.

That led me to the Ephesians text.  Let me first say that this piece of scripture has been used in hurtful ways over the centuries, especially here in the USA, to justify the existence of slavery.  It is one of those texts that we sometimes wish wasn't in the Bible.  Stay with me a few moments as I try to explain it.  The passage is part of a household code.  This was common in Greek society.  It was to promote order.  The passage talks about the relationships between spouses, between parents and children, and between masters and slaves/servants. 

Today, we may say that we don't need such codes.  We don't practice such classism.  But consider with me, don't we still divide ourselves along economic lines?   We have the middle class, or maybe you are in the upper class, or lower class.  Recently we had the Occupy Movement with its phrase, "We are the 99%."  Maybe we still find ourselves separated by class.

Maybe it is in your family.  You are a first-born, super-responsible person.  Maybe you got the family blessing.  Maybe you are the black sheep of the family.  Don't we find separation here?

Maybe you are in the top 10% academically in school.  That still may not help you get into college.  There is a Supreme Court case right now involving the University of Texas and  a student who was not admitted.  She claims reverse discrimination.

On athletic teams we have varsity, and junior varsity.  Even there, you have the starting team, the second team.  There are depth charts.  We put people into classes.

In business too, there is recognition of different strata.  You may have a corner office and a primo parking space.  You may toil away in a basement cubicle and park blocks away.

Where are you in the pecking order? 

This leads us to the Mark passage.  The 12 disciples have been going along with Jesus.  Two of them, James and John ask Jesus a question, "We want you to do for us whatever we ask."  "What do you want?"  "We want to sit at your right hand and your left hand."  It is as if they called out, "Shotgun.  I call dibs."  Jesus says that they don't know what they are asking.  They are not able to endure the cost.  The other 10 follwoers  are mad.  It is then that Jesus teaches about true discipleship.  Jesus says that the greatest among them shall be as a servant, the first as the last.  He reorders community.  He turns everything topsy-turvy.  Servanthood is not an obligation so much as it is a sign of Christian maturity.  It is a mark of our identity as a follower of Christ.

So we relook at the Ephesian passage.  It is a bit subtle, but even here the writer is saying that  a new dynamic is at work.  Masters and slaves/servants are now part of the same community.  Master are to treat servants with dignity.  Slaves are to serve not out of duty but out of love.  They both have one Master with a capital M.  They both are servants to Him.

How will we treat one another in Christian community?  John Woolman was a Quaker who lived in the 1700's.  He thought as a Christian that the institution of slavery was wrong.  He went to his fellow Quakers who had slaves individually and shared his conviction.  For 30 years, he persevered with patience and gentleness.  He asked questions like, "What does the owning of slaves do you as a moral person?  What do this teach your children?"  His leadership resulted in the fact that almost universally Quakers gave up all slaves 100 years before the Civil War in the USA. 

He was a servant.  He studied scripture.  He knew that we do not worship scripture.  We worship the God revealed in scripture.  He took the tiny wedge that was found in the Ephesians household code and widened it.  He would use passages like Galatians 3:28, where Paul talks about how we are all one in Christ Jesus and there is no longer Jew or Greek, male or female, or slave or free, for we have all been baptized into Him.  He would look at the example of Jesus who though he was the Son of God became a servant.

In Downton Abbey, there is a  storyline where the landed gentry get to practice servanthood.  World War I results in many battlefield wounds.  The soldiers return to Brittain needing places to convalesce.  The dining room and living room and study and every available space in the huge house is opened to these wounded veterans.  The priviliged class come to tend to these patients.  They become their servants.

What we find is that we all feel the same way deep inside.  We are all vulnerable.  We all get scared, get hurt, get lonely, need others.  Servanthood is the great equalizer.

We should not be surprised at this in our community.  We have a mission statement:  Following One, Serving All.  We United Methodists have our 5 vows.  We say that we practice following Christ by our prayers, presence, gifts, SERVICE, and witness. 

There was a great book written several years ago that captures this theme:  Servant Leadership by Robert Greenleaf.  His thesis is that the more powerful we become, the richer, the higher in office, then the more call to become a servant there is.  He has a great quote for this election season (I voted early on this past Tuesday).  "People freely respond only to individuals who are chosen as leaders because they are proven and trusted as servants."

In the book, he quotes a story from Herman Hesse's book Journey to the East.  There is a caravan of men who are on a quest.  Leo the servant helps them along, doing menial labor, as well as singing songs, telling stories, and mediating conflicts.  The caravan gets along fine as long as Leo is with them.  One day he leaves.  The caravan falls apart.  The men go off their separate ways.  The narrator wanders for years before Leo finds him.  He take him under his wing.  Leo is revealed as the leader of the Order that had sponsored the quest in the first place. 

Jesus is our example.  Our leader acts like a servant.

How will you serve?  With whom will you serve? 

The good news I have to share today is that the greatest one among you is the one who acts as a servant.

Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood

from my message on 10/21/12, Children's Sabbath, from Mark 10:13-16

During the children's message, I sang "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood..."  While singing, I took off my suit jacket and put on a blue sweater. I took off my dress shoes and put on some sneakers.  I told the children that my message was very simple and powerful.  I quoted Mr. Rogers without using his name, "You always make each day a special day.  You know how:  just by being yourself.  There's only one person in the whole world that's like you, and that's you!  And people cna like you exactly the way you are."  I then took the time to lay my hands on each child's head, look them in the eyes, and say, "God bless you."   At the early service, while I was doing this, a child (away from me) sneezed, and I said, appropriately, "God bless you."  At the second service, as I approached the last child, this boy reached out his hands to me, placed them on my head, and said, "God bless you."  It wasn't in the script.  It was a God moment.

My message...There once was a man who treated children as if they mattered.  His name was Fred Rogers.  He had a degree in music.  He wrote and published more than 200 songs, including that one I sang about a beautiful day in the neighborhood.  He was an ordained Presbyterian minister.  He was a storyteller and a puppeter.  You probably know him best from his children's show on PBS, called Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.  This month, my messages are based upon shows from PBS.  As it is Children's Sabbath, we thought it most fitting to use Mr. Rogers.  He treated children as if they mattered.  For more than 33 years, he had his program on PBS.  He told the truth to children.  He knew that they would not tolerate any fakery.  One of the most watched episodes was the show where he talked about the death of his goldfish.  Over those decades he confronted real life situations like war, divorce, making friends, hurting friends and needing forgiveness.  His message was always simple.  There's only you in the world.  People can like you just the way you are.  He treated children as if they mattered.  He did not treat children as if they were objects or projects.

Do you know how we can make children into projects?  I am reading this Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith.  The latest series I just finished, called 44 Scotland Street, was set in Edinburgh, where I lived for one school year.  I got to relive my memories through reading.  He wrote the story as a serial, published daily in the newspaper, like authors used to do.  Later, it became a 4 volume set.  In the books, one of the main characters is a little boy named Bertie, who goes from 5 years old to 6 over the arc of the story.  Bertie's mom is  a woman named Irene.  She calls her son, the "Bertie project."  I don't want to blame this mom or any mom.  She is very domineering.  Her husband, Stuart, Bertie's father is no help.  He is passive.  He barely has any relationship with his son.  He works crunching numbers for the Scottish government, and caves in to Irene's wishes.  Irene has the "Bertie project" as a  5 year old playing the saxophone.  Not just squeaking out notes, but playing "As Time Goes By."  She forces him to try out for a teenager orchestra, and he gets in!  Bertie is learning to speak Italian.  He wants to play rugby and to watch trains, but Irene has him take yoga.  She has painted his room pink so that he won't be into gender stereotyping.  Bertie is embarrassed to have anyone over.  Irene is so pushy that she alienates the staff of the school where Bertie attends, and he gets removed from the school.  Irene's response is to get Bertie into psychotherapy.   I wonder if we ever try to make children into projects.

I got a chance to talk to some of the parents of our children from our preschool this past week.  On Wednesday and Thursday mornings, I had "Coffee with Pastor" in our Wyatt Hall.  I am happy to say that some moms and dads took time to visit with me.  Without revealing any names or exact quotes, I got these general impressions of parents with their children today.  "Our kids have every material blessing.  They want for nothing.  We are so busy.  We are running from soccer, to ballet, to tutoring.  We never have enough time.  There's got to be more to life than just "things."  How can we give our children a moral compass?  What if my child doesn't get into Harvard?  Harvard only takes a few every year." 

I told the parents that this is the very reason that the church exists...to give a foundation, a faith that helps us cope with whatever we face in life.  We offer the spiritual component.  That simple message of you are loved for being you is true.  It is not about what grades you get or how athletic you are.  We talk about being children of God, in relationship with God and with others. We are not objects or projects.

In 2 weeks time, some folks from this congregation including our director of children's ministry, Hilary Martin, are going to take a field trip to First UMC in Ft. Worth, where they do a worship service every month called Children First.  Imagine a service where children take a leading role every month, where families feel welcome.  No one else is doing this around here.  I am excited about trying to welcome children here....as children, not projects.

Jesus treated children as if they mattered.  He didn't treat them as objects or projects.  In this passage he welcomes the little children.  This was highly unusual behavior for that time.  As I did the research, children weren't valued highly then.  One reason was that many of them died.  Only about 40% made it to age 16.  Fathers had the power to accept a child or not.  It was not a biological matter only.  Some writing from that time period said that scholars should not waste their time on children.  So the disciples were acting totally in harmony with the culture by screening out the children.  But Jesus welcomes them.

Did you notice that the parents wanted Jesus to touch them?   Every other time the word "touch" is used, it is always in relationship to healing.  The parents wanted Jesus not to just touch or bless the children, but to heal them.  I know that we may have sanitized this scene in our minds, with the children having scrubbed faces and in clean clothes.  But what if they have stuff coming out of both ends?  What if they are sick?  Jesus touches them, perhaps to heal them.

Where do children need healing today?  I know the national Children's Sabbath movement advocates for healthcare for children, for nutrition, for adequate funding for education.  I hope we don't treat children as objects or projects, as statistics or numbers on pages.

People were bringing children to Jesus so that he might touch them.  He did.  He laid hands on them and blessed them.  I would love for you to have that experience.  What I did with the children up front, I would like for you to do with one another.  I envision it being like Christmas Eve where we pass the light of Christ from one candle to another.  But this time, we pass a blessing.  I will lay hands on some of you in each section, saying, "God bless you."  Then you pass that on to others, spreading throughout the sanctuary.  It's okay if you get blessed 2 or 3 times.  Let's try it.

I see that the blessing has made it all the way to the back.  It doesn't have to stop there.  It can continue beyond these walls and beyond this time out into the world, because there are many that don't know that they are God's children.

There once was a many who treated childen as if they mattered.  His name was Jesus.  He said, "Let the little children come unto me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God."

That's the good news I have to share.

ACL

from my message on Oct 14, from Psalm 98, Ephesians 5:18b-20, Mk 14:26

(video clip of ACL, Austin City Limits with crowds rushing through the gates in Zilker Park to attend one of the many concerts presented at multiple stages)

How many of you have attended ACL?  Well, I am glad that you have chosen to be here today.  How many of you have watched the TV show Austin City Limits?  It has been going on for more than 30 years now.  This marks the second sermon in  a series based on shows found at PBS.  The worship team has challenged me to start with things going on in our culture and work back to the scriptures and Christian tradition.  Today with ACL, the message is this:  music takes us beyond our limits.  Music takes us beyond ourselves.  Music takes us into the presence of the Holy One. 

The parish of St. Thomas had a school and a worshiping congregation.  The school needed a choirmaster.  The church needed an organist.  They advertised for candidates.  Their top pick took 3 weeks to consider the offer before turning it down.  The second choice also declined to accept.  One of the persons on the search committee wrote in his diary, "Since the best man could not be obtained, we will have to go with a mediocre choice."  The third choice accepted the position, Johann Sebastian Bach! 

When I do the spiritual gifts inventory with you, the most common response I get is, "I can't sing.  I'm not very musical."  Bach came in third!  I love what the psalmist says, "Make a joyful noise to the LORD."  All of creation is called to shout praise to God.  Not just trained musicians, but everyone and everything in all creation.  When Bach was hired at St. Thomas in Leipzig in 1722, the move was on in churches toward an operatice style with professional singers.  The St. Thomas search committee was looking for someone to reverse that trend.  They wanted to give the music back to the congregation.  Bach wrote his chorales with that express intent.  Yes the choir would sing, but there were sections for the congregation to respond back.  It was like a dialogue.  Music takes us beyond ourselves into the very presence of God.  All of us, all of creation is called to praise.

The psalmist also says, "Sing to the LORD a new song."  I know that we love our old favorites.  Some of you say to me, "Why can't we sing the old songs?"  I sometimes wonder, do you mean from the Cokesbury hymnal, or the 1935 hymnal, or the 1968, or the 1992?  We like what is familiar to us.  We get comfortable with it.  But I was preparing for this message (aren't you glad!), I came across a sermon by another pastor.  He had an interesting question, "What is the latest hymn that has impacted your faith?"  That is a pretty good measure of one's progress in discipleship--the learning of new songs.  We are trying to help people along a path of discipleship, and one of the ways we can tell someone is growing in their relationship with Christ is the learning of new songs.  As we were introducing this path of discipleship concept in the worship services several months ago, Diana, our director of music and worship, taught us a new song.  It has impacted my soul,
(singing)
It is the cry of my heart to follow you,
It is the cry of my heart to be close to you,
It is cry of my heart to follow,
All of the days of my life.

Why do we need new songs?  Because God is not through revealing God's self.  The mystery of God will never be fully captured.  God is the ultimate composer.  Occasionally, God will give me a song to write.  I have never claimed that it was my creation.  It is more like overhearing the song that God is already singing.  There will always be new songs about God.  They take us our of ourselves into the very presence of God.

Ephesians has that wonderful line that as a church we are to sing, "Songs and hymns and spiritual songs" to one another.  Already in the early church, you find great diversity and variety in music.  When I was pastor in San Saba, that county seat town, some 100 miles northwest of here, the radio station re-opened.  KBAL, 1400 on your AM dial.  The owners of the new station were members of my church.  I asked them what kind of music they were going to play.  They said, "We are going to play both kinds....County AND Western.  I know at ACL there are so many different genres of music being offered.  I read reviews of bands that say something like, "they are a mix of psychedelic pop, indie garage, thrash bluegrass, and ska with some Southern roots thrown in."  I know sometimes in the church we have "worship wars."  This service has  traditional music.  This service has contemporary music.  Can't we sing songs and hymns and spiritual songs?  Can't we move beyond ourselves into the presence of God? 

Can we move beyond our prejudice, our narrowness, our sin?  Music can help us do that.  This pastor whose sermon has helped me understand this passage talked about another pastor whom he could not stand.  I know you find that hard to believe that pastors could hold such feelings.  But this other pastor had the wrong theology.  His view of God was diametrically opposed to the first pastor.  But the first pastor said, "But he has such a lovely bass voice....I love standing next to him and singing."  That is as close as we can be in this life to another believer with whom we disagree.  Music takes us beyond ourselves into the very presence of God.

Finally, Mark's gospel reports that one of the last things Jesus did in his earthly ministry was to sing.  When they sang a hymn, they went out into the night.  It was Thursday, Maundy Thursday, before Good Friday.  Jesus had celebrated the Passover Feast with his disciples.  They sang a hymn and went out into the night.  The last night of his life upon this earth.

It was night.  Cahty and I had tickets to the opening of the new performance hall at Texas A & M--
Corpus Christi.  The architects who built it were the same architects who built our church plant in Portland down on the coast.  They provided the tickets.  The Corpus Christi Symphony was playing.  The special guest artist was none other than Van Cliburn.  You may have heard of him.  He won an international piano competition Russia several years ago.  He is a Ft. Worth boy, who done good.  He has gone on to host his own competion. He is very tall.  He came out the grand piano.  It was just like Bugs Bunny in the cartoons.  Before he sat down at the piano bench, he flicked out his tuxedo tails.  He played beautifully.  During a break between numbers, all of the lights in the new performance hall went off.  All power went down.  There was a gasp.  It was not intended.  Whether there was a technical glitch in the new space, or someone pulled a plug, or a breaker tripped, I don't know.  It was a bit scary for just a moment.  When the power came back on, Van Cliburn stood, and quieted everyone's anxiety.  In a calm and clear voice, he said, "What a wonderful reminder in our electronic age, that even if the lights went out, the music would still go on."

Music takes us beyond our limits, beyond ourselves.  All of this life is just rehearsal for eternity.  The music will still go on.  I like what the hymn 292 says,
(singing)
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing on,
And when from death I'm free, I'll sing and joyful be,
And through eternity, I'll sing on, I'll sing on,
And through eternity, I'll sing on.

I am reading a Scottish author, Alexander McCall Smith, right now.  He made the following observation:  whenever angels are mentioned, the collective term for angels is usually.....a band.  We are in rehearsal.  We are just practicing for the heavenly choir.

Music take us beyond ourselves.  That is the good news I have to share.

Antiques Road Show

from my message on 10/7/12, World Communion Sunday, start of PBS series, from I Cor. 11:23-26

Start with the video clip of The Antiques Road Show with LOGO, theme music, and people standing in line holding their treasures




What do you treasure? Explain the concept of the ARS, people bringing stuff from their trunks, attics, safety deposit boxes, garage sales, trash cans to a big convention center where experts/appraisers take a look at it. They try to give it an approximate date, who made it, its rarity, the market demand for such an item. Then there's the concept of provenance, a chain of evidence that this object really is what it says it is, who its previous owners were, etc.



Shift to Paul, who lifts up the treasure we have in this feast and its provenance, "For I received from the Lord that which I handed over to you.." A little more explanation perhaps..How we have continued this feast and now we celebrate it in so many lands and languages around the world...how we are united in this communion table..



Last lines.... What's this feast worth? In the ARS, that's the question, the appraiser is always asking, "Do you have any idea how much this is worth?



Video Clip of a few items, the appraisers announcing the value at auction or what it should be insured for, the owners responses...close with clip of something truly ordinary, but of great sentimental value to its owner, who would not trade it for anything



Hold up bread...how much is this worth? Hold up receipt from HEB...$3,89. I wouldn't trade it for anything. It is priceless. What is community worth? You are not going to believe this but the church at Corinth was in conflict. Can you imagine that? People in church fighting with each other? They fought over which leader was more important, over money, over women in ministry, over marriage and sexuality, over worship, over understandings of resurrection. They even fought here at the table. It seems that worship was held in people's homes. The rich with the larger houses would often host. The other rich persons would be in the dining room having a lavish feast as they reclined around the table, while the poor crowd stood in the entryway getting maybe the leftovers. Paul reminds them of the meal Jesus had with his followers who were sinners like the Corinthians, like us, "on the night he was handed over ..." This meal comes as a gift from God to sinful human beings always. We remember that our first transgression in that garden long ago involved food. That is the context of this feast. It is not for perfect people. It is for people who are hungry for forgiveness, for reconciliation, for community. That's what happens when we eat this bread and drink of this cup, we become one, we become community. Communion leads to community. That's what we pray for our world today. One way for us to enact our prayers is that we who are rich keep sharing our bread until all of the world is fed. That's why we bring food for the food pantry on the first Sunday of the month.  That's why we walked in the CROP Walk; we had 48 walkers who raised over $6,000.  Texas ranks 2nd in the nation for percentage of persons who are hungry.  We share our bread until they are fed.  Then the world would look like this table. Then we would live in communion with one another.



(last line) What's that worth? It is priceless.



Video clip of the wax cylinder, the one of a kind, national treasure...that shatters in the appraiser's hands



The feast we share here reminds us that Jesus was shattered. It was not an accident. Not some tragic mistake of the judicial system. Jesus freely gives himself. Take bread. Take the cup. Remember the death, the sacrifice. Here's what is interesting about this bread, when it is broken, it gains in value.



We hope. Our hope is rooted in brokenness. Jesus is broken for a broken world. We are broken open, revealed for who we are. Jesus is broken "for you." Literally on our behalf. He is on our side. He is for us, not against us. We remember the Lord's death until He comes. He does come. That why we repeat this meal over and over again. Ed Shirley at St. Ed's said, "Communication tells us something we don't know. Communion deepens what we already know."



We keep eating here so that we may be for the world the body of Christ redeemed by his blood.   That's the good news I have to share today.

Adam

10/2/12  In Genesis, the book of our beginnings, the first book of the Bible, God creates Adam.  From my understanding of Hebrew, Adam is not simply a male person.  Adam represents humankind as opposed to animal kind, or bird kind, or fish kind.  Adam comes from the adamah, the ground, the dust, the earth.  You can see how closely Adam is linked to adamah.  They come from the same root word.

There is a young man named Adam who is in the ICU currently.  He has been there for 1 1/2 weeks.  He has had a brain bleed.  We still don't have a diagnosis.  It is awful hard waiting.  Many people have been praying and supporting Adam.  You can too by going to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/adamslinkard.  There you will find daily updates, ways for you to contribute, and a place for you to leave your prayers and best wishes.  When I checked a few minutes ago, there had been over 3500 visits to this website on Adam's behalf.  May Jesus Christ be the Great Physician and bring healing to Adam.

Love,
Lynn

the Jesus I never Knew: What difference he makes

from my message on 9/30/12 from Matthew 25:31-46 and Luke 17:20-21

Netflix....Netflix streaming video.  For one flat rate per month, you can access a huge catalogue of shows over the internet that you can watch on your computer.  Cathy and I like British shows.  We found a series this summer that we really liked.  The main character was a lawyer in a town in England.  I think lawyers are called solicitors there.  His name was Peter, a good, strong name.  From the very beginning of the series, we are faced with his brother who has gone missing off the beach.  Did he drown accidently?  Did he take his own life?  Was he faking his death to escape the mob to whom he owed a huge debt?  Peter also has a sister who has mental issues; she acts out by being sexually promiscuous.  Then there is a junior partner whom Peter mentors who is trying to become qualified as a solicitor.  What I like best about the show is that Peter rarely goes to court.  He tries to resolve differences by getting people to talk with one another.  In one episode there is a food fight from 2 food trailers across the road from one another.  They literally throw food at each other.  It turns out that they are brothers who have been left a legacy by their father.  To use churchy language, Peter tries to find reconciliation.  He works within the law, but more, he works within love.    Peter has a last name; it is Kingdom.  The title of the series on Netflix is Kingdom.

Kingdom is the word for the day.  This is the last in a sermon series on the Jesus I Never Knew.  Today it is on what difference He makes.  That difference can be summed up in one word: Kingdom.

We Americans may not be able to relate to this concept of kingdom to well.  After all, we did not grow up with a monarchy.  We are not familiar with royalty, dukes and earls, duchesses, etc.  In fact, we left many countries that had these forms of government to come to this country in order to escape kings and kingdoms.  We value democracy where we freely elect our officials.  And please God let that come quickly and without too much pain! 

Our Bible is certainly familiar with kings and kingdoms.  The Hebrew people, after entering the Promised Land and having some years with judges and prophets leading them, demand that they have a king like other countries around them.  They want a military leader.  They want security.  The prophet says, "You have your God as King.  You don't know what you are asking.  You won't like it."  But the people continue to demand, and so Saul becomes the first king of Israel.  It doesn't go well.  However, the idea of a kingdom becomes part of the expectation of the Jewish people.  The kingdom of God connoted peace, freedom from oppression and prosperity.

Jesus picks up on this kingdom imagery.  In the passage from Matthew, we heard that those blessed by the king would enter a kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  The Kingdom of God was considered to be before time and space existed.  Jesus speaks of the kingdom 53 times in Mattthew's Gospel alone.  We find it in the Lord's Prayer we just said, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingom come"... and at the end, "for thine is the kingdom, and the power.."

Then there are all of those parables of the kingdom.  You say, "the kingdom of heaven is like," and I will fill in the blank.  The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of seeds and yet produced the largest of shrubs.  The kingdom of heaven is like a little bit of yeast which when put into the dough causes the who loaf to rise.  The kingdom of heaven is like the pearl of great price which a merchant sold all of his other goods in order to obtain.  The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field which a man finds and invests all he has in it.

Did you notice in Matthew's Gospel it is always the Kingdom of heaven?  Matthew is the most Jewish of the Gospels.  Our Jewish friends do not say the word "GOD" as the  Name is holy, so they substitute another word.  So in Matthew it is not the Kingdom of God, but the Kingdom of heaven.

John the Baptist introduces the coming of Jesus the Messiah by proclaiming, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near."  Jesus begins his ministry by repeating exactly the same words, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near."  The number 1 topic that Jesus preached about is the Kingdom.  No other topic comes close. 

In Luke, Jesus says that this Kingdom is in the midst of you.  You may be wondering today where this Kingdom is.  If you watch the news, you may see only a world filled with hate, hurt, harshness.  Let me hear a heavy sigh.  This past week we have seen the escalation of a civil war in Syria.  The United Nations have been meeting, but they are far from united.  The leader of Iran dismisses the existence of Israel.  The leader of Israel stands up and holds a picture of a bomb from Iran with a red line across it, explaining that there is a red line out there that Israel will not allow Iran to cross.  Don't get me started on Palestine, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and that is just in one small part of our world.  There is hunger on a massive scale in famines and smaller scale right here in Austin.  We have diseases and dis-ease.  I know this is awfully heavy, so a little lighter touch of awfulness.  This summer at the national Scrabble contest, there was cheating.  Someone brought in a blank tile, like an ace up the sleeve in poker.  Can you imagine it?  Cheating at Scrabble?  Heavy sigh.

Where is this kingdom that Jesus proclaims?  It is in our midst.  If we open our eyes of faith, we will see it.  I had a conversion experience this past week, as I looked beyond the news to the good news.  I saw Ellen Balthazar retiring after all of those years of service at Any Baby Can, which was born right out of this congregation.  Lila Carl played a significant role in getting it started.  ABC meets the needs of families with children who have extraordinary difficulties.  I saw Marci Hursting pull together this walk for persons with mental illness.  Marci has been in Bible studies and grown her soul.  She went singing at our Austin State Hospital and got convinced to do something.  We have the opportunity to give food again next Sunday for the Methodist Church in Granite Shoals as we supply their Grace food pantry.  I went to Sunday School this morning with the Preston Wyatt class who surprised Gwen here with a bridal shower.  This is how the Kingdom comes, with surprise, with hope and healing for the most vulnerable.

I saw the kingdom in your ministry with Adam Slinkard this man in his mid 20's who has this brain bleed and is in ICU.  You have sent food, so much, that the family shares with others families from out of town. You have supplied ice chests and cold drinks.  You have sent cards and offered prayers.  You have visited in person and through the caring bridge.  I checked this morning, and there had been 2,739 visits online which Adam reads.  One of you brought paper towels.  Laura the mom said, "Paper towels.  Who knew I would find them so handy."  A doctor, not even on the healing team, spent 10 hours there on Saturday, on his birthday,simply as a family friend.  Our own Sara Austin has pulled together a great healing team.  The family said this to me, "We would never wish this experience on anybody, but we have found through this experience how much we are loved.  There is a lot of good in the world."  This is how the kingdom comes.

The kingdom is not synonymous with the church.  In fact, if we pay attention to that  parable that Jesus told, the ones who thought they were in were actually out, and the ones who thought they were out were actually in.  We as the church need to confess that we are both sheep and goats.  We need to throw ourselves on the mercy of God.  We are saved by grace.  We can be blind and deaf to the needs around us.  Jesus alone is Sovereign and saves us.  He is King of kings and Lord of Lords.

It is hard to see the kingdom sometimes because it is "already and not yet' at the same time.  The analogy is that the war is already over, but the mopping up battles still continue.  Another analogy comes from the hymn, This is my Father's world, which has that line, "That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet."

The best translation of what Jesus says is "The kindgom of God is in the midst of 'you all''.  We do this together...with God, with each other.  The good news I have to share is that the kingdom is in the midst of y'all.

The Jesus I Never Knew, Why He Came:Mission

from my sermon on 9/23/12 from Luke 7:36-50

When I am invited out to eat, I usually go!  It is not a big moral decision for me.  I like to eat.  I enjoy company.  If someone is hosting, preparing the meal, and doing the dishes, I'm ususally there.  People like me what I like to eat.  I am an omnivore.  I never met a food I didn't like. 

Jesus like to eat as well.  So when Simon invites him to his house, Jesus goes.  This is not the only time that Jesus eats with Pharisees.  In Luke's Gospel, 2 other times Jesus eats with Pharisees.  In fact, in Luke, we find Jesus eating a lot.  It seems he will eat with just about anybody.  He eats with Levi a tax collector and Zaccheus a chief tax collector.  He feeds a crowd of more than 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes.  He eats with Mary and Martha in their home.  Remember how one of them sat at Jesus' feet and the other was complaining at having to do all the work in preparing the meal.  I call this story, "Gritching in the Kitchen."  I can't say the other word I could use.  Jesus has a Passover meal with his disciples...his followers who betray him, deny him, and desert him.  Only in Luke do we find Jesus breaking bread with his disciples on Easter evening at Emmaus, revealing himself to them in resurrected form.  Also in Luke Jesus proves that he has resurrected body by eating fish with his disciples.  It seems Jesus will eat with just about anybody.  In fact, he is accused of eating with tax collectors and sinners.

Then in Luke, Jesus tells lots of stories that involve eating.   In the story of the prodigal son, this wayward one is welcomed back with a feast of the fatted calf.  There is a story of a king who gives a marriage banquet that the guests refuse to attend.  Jesus makes the point not to invite those who can invite you back, but to invite the poor, the maimed, the blind, the lame....the vulnerable ones.  There is the story of the rich man who feasted sumptously every day and the poor man Lazarus at his gates whom he never recognized.

Why do we have so much eating in Luke?  What's this got to do with the message for today?  We are in the third week of this sermon series on the Jesus I Never Knew, talking today about Why Jesus Came, his Mission.  I can sum up in mission in one image, a table, a table that welcomes everybody. In the book, The Jesus I Never Knew, the author cites how the Jewish faith considers every table to be a little Temple.  It is a place of worship.  Let me be clear:  Jesus wants to welcome as many people as possible to the table.  This is the table of acceptance, of love, of forgiveness.

This reminds me of what happened the second time I went to the Holy Land.  It is a long plane ride.  You arrive in Israel jet lagged, exhausted.  They heard you through customs and passport control and onto your tour bus.  Some 40 of us pilgrims...we are not tourists, but pilgrims.  Our guide gets on the bus microphone while we are still in the parking lot of the airport.  He says, "My name is David, and I am Jewish.  This is our bus driver, Ishmael, and he is Muslim.  I know all of you are Christians.  This is what I have to say to you, 'Welcome home.'"

Now it may be written in the instruction manual for all tour guides in Israel to say these words at the beginning of the trip, "Welcome home," but they are still the right words to say.  We starting driving toward Jerusalem, and stopped some 7 miles outside of town at the village of Emmaus.  The sun was going down.  A monastary on the hill above us rang its bells.  David had us gathered on a grassy area.  He said, "I want to welcome you in the way that people have been welcomed here for millenia."  He took a piece of flat bread (I do this too).  He broke it and passed it among us. 

I want to say to you today, Welcome home.  Take a piece of this flatbread and eat, if you want to.  I went to some effort to find some that was wheat and gluten free.  It is just a piece of bread.  It is like a small echo of the sacrament of communion.  It is like a small foretaste of the kingdom of God.

Do you know what it is like to feel welcomed, accepted, forgiven?  I went to Boston College to do some study in spiritual direction.  Boston College is a Jesuit Catholic university.  We had the orienation session on a Sunday night.  They talked about the class schedule.  They talked about there being chapel every day, including communion every Monday-Wednesday-Friday.  After the presenation, I approached the priest who was in charge of the chapel.  I said, "I know that you have restrictions on who can take communion.  Listen, I am a United Methodist and I....."   He said, "Hold on.  You are welcome here."  The next day at noon, attended chapel.  The priest gave the invitation to receive.  I went forward.  I held my hands up.  The priest put a little piece of bread into my hands, and said, "The body of Christ for you."  I went to the chalice.  Do you know they use real wine?  Not like the grape juice we do.  It had a zing to it.  "The blood of Christ for you."  I wept.  I was included.

I am so glad that in our United Methodist tradition that we practice an open table, taht all are welcome.  You here me say month after month, "If you are willing to receive whatever Christ has at this table, then you are welcome here." 

I cannot think of a better image for Jesus' mission than a table where all are welcome.  I tried to make his mission about the Great Commission from Matthew 28, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them all that I have commanded you."  I tried to make his mission about the mirlacles and healings that illustrated his power.  I tried to make his mission about his teachings.  But nothing captures so succinctly and so well his mission as a table of forgiveness and love for all.  He doesn't just speak it; he models it.

And so Jesus eats with Simon.  He wants to eat with the woman who washes and anoints his feet.  It is funny how the woman shows more hospitality to Jesus than the host Simon does.  The woman already gets it:  she is loved and accepted. 

Jesus has a question for Simon and for us:   Do you see this woman?  Ouch!   We all have blind spots, people we would rather not see, not invite to the table.  The main thing I hate about preaching is that the first person I preach to is me.   So there he was on the corner of N. Lamar and 5th street with his sign that said, "Native American.  Need Food.  Anything Helps."  And I kept both hands on the steering wheel and stared straight ahead.  I stayed in my insulated bubble of the car.  When I got home that evening, I went to HEB, and I bought the gallon storage bags, granola bars, water bottles, etc. to make bags of grace so that I wouldn't be caught again without something to give.  Remember how I have instructed you to engage the folks on the street by asking them their name so that we can make this a personal transaction and not a business one.  Do you see this man?  Do you see this woman?

We know that direct aid is good, but that it is not enough.  I appreciate Alan Graham of Mobile Loaves & Fishes so much.  Yes, there is direct aid as those canteen trucks make their runs to feed the homeless on the streets of Austin.  But Alan says, it is more to do with dignity.  That's what he wants.  That's what the homeless want....dignity.  Alan sees the men and women.  He knows their names.  He has a vision of providing dignity.  He took me to a new store off S. 1st St. and Ben White.   There people are learning trades.  They take furniture that homes have thrown away.  Imagine 3 chairs with the bottoms torn out.  They place a 2 x 12 across the 3 chairs and make a bench.  They sand it and stain it and sell it for $80.  Imagine a man renting one of those bicycle ice cream carts.  For 8 hours of work during a festival downtown, he can clear a few hundred dollars.  Alan took me to East Austin where they have 27 acres of land.  He wants to build a village for the homeless.  There is a teepee.  Can you imagine living in a teepee for $200 a month.  If I were a kid, I would think that would be so cool.  They have taken travel trailers and rehabbed them and rent them for $300, or $400 a month of whatever the person can afford.  The vision is of a community that works together, taking care of gardens, doing the trash pick-up, handling security, going to 12 step  groups together.   Do you see this man?  Do you see this woman?  All are welcome.

All are welcome.  Last night Cathy and I went to the Pride Parade.  I cannot tell you how uncomfortable I am still after all these years. I grew up in the Panhandle of Texas where we didn't say the words, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual, transgenderer.  We didn't think such things existed.  I don't mean to make you uncomfortable either.  I found last night that all were welcome.  It was the 21 st year to have this parade.  Twent-one years ago there were 2 Methodist pastors brave enough to walk.  Last night there were some 8 Methodist congregations and over 200 Methodists walking.  As we walked, people in the parade and along the sides were shouting "Woooo, wooo."  I was not a "wooooer."  I was walking for my brother David and for all those who may have felt like they had not been welcomed by the Church.  This table is one of welcome, acceptance, love.

When I did my work for my doctorate here at Austin Seminary, I had a guy in one of my classes who was the pastor of the Metropolitan Community Chruch in Dallas.  The MCC is radically welcoming, especially of the gay community.  He said, "We have communion every week in our congregaion.  We lay on hands for healing every week.  People often tell me that this is the only touch that they get every week."  I cannot think of a better image for Jesus' mission that the table that welcomes all.

Let's sing it, "Be present at our table Lord, be here and everywhere adored, Thy creatures bless and grant that we, may feast in fellowship with thee.  Amen."