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.