The Pastor’s Words

Text:  Luke 11:1-13
July 29, 2007                          
Topic:  Teach us to pray.

            The disciples asked Jesus in our gospel for today, “Lord, teach us to pray.”  As Christians, we need to learn how to connect to the Source of our being, we need to communicate with the Power that saves us and redeems us.

Paige is three years old and obviously knows how to pray. 

Earlier this summer, a carnival had stopped in her town and so Paige’s mother suggested the two of them might want to go to the carnival and have lots of fun, just mother and daughter, for some quality time together.  But then, Paige’s mother cautioned, the weather didn’t look so very good and that it might rain and then they wouldn’t be able to go.

Paige’s quick response to her mother was, “It’s not going to rain.”  Her mother asked, “How do you know this?”  And again, Paige’s quick response was, “I talked to God about it and it’s not going to rain.”

Her mother, not wanting Paige to think she can ignore the benefits of rain, said, “Well, what about the farmers who need rain for their crops, and what about the trees and the flowers that need the rain to grow?  We can’t be selfish about not wanting it to rain just so we can go to the carnival.”

Not to be dissuaded, Paige simply said, “God said it’s not going to rain.”  And so, mother and daughter went to the carnival, and guess what, it didn’t rain.

Lord, teach us to pray.

This past week, I spoke with a woman who was on the verge of giving up all hope in life.  Family issues had become so huge with nothing at all going right for her or for her family.  Your heart would break if you knew what she is dealing with.  Unlike Paige, however, she was beginning to doubt that God even listened to her prayers much less cared.

I listened to this woman’s pain.  I listened to her fears and sadness.  I had no easy answers.  I just listened, and listened.  And then, I prayed.  I prayed, not knowing how my prayer could possibly be answered, but I prayed anyway.

Lord, teach us to pray, even when we don’t know what to pray.

Our gospel reading for today says the disciples saw Jesus praying and when he was finished they asked him, “Lord teach us how to pray.”  And so he did.  He taught them the Lord’s Prayer, not exactly in the form that we know it today, but the basics are there.  You’ll find another version of this same prayer in Matthew’s gospel.  And from these two versions, we have created the Lord’s Prayer, both in its traditional form and in its contemporary form, giving us a basic format for praying, a format that has endured for almost 2000 years.

The first thing we learn from Jesus, and from Paige’s prayer, is that we should be totally free to talk to God about anything.  We learn from Jesus, and from Paige, “Ask and you will receive, search and you will find, knock and the door will be opened for you.”  (Luke 11:9 CEV)  A child understands and accepts this kind of praying.  To really know how to pray is to understand and copy the prayer of a child.

The second thing we learn from Jesus, and from Paige’s prayer, is, “Keep it simple.”  God doesn’t need fancy words or even complete thoughts.  We don’t have to know the mind of God or even to have read the Bible very much.  God simply wants us to communicate, out loud or silently, grunting or groaning, singing or praising.  Communication happens in all these ways and that’s all God wants from us, simple and honest conversation with our Maker.

Probably the hardest thing about prayer is being willing to take a really hard look at ourselves, getting in touch with our innermost fears, our hidden secrets, our greatest longings, and our grandest plans and laying them all out before God.  In asking the Lord to teach us to pray, introspection is an absolute requirement.  And when we do, when we look inside ourselves, we end up learning things so deep about ourselves the only Entity who could possibly understand us is God.   

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to put all our trust in God.  Paige did this.  We can do it too.  Prayer is at its best when we lay ourselves before God and wait for the Holy Spirit to show us the way.

One fact in life is certain.  Events happen in life over which we have no control.  Now, we have two choices when these out-of-control events happen.  We can panic, or, we can pray.  We all know that panic only leads to more panic, so prayer is the better option.  Because prayer re-connects us to the Source, reconnects us to the Power that has any chance of making an impact on the situation.  Since we already know we cannot control the events in our lives, prayer gives us the opportunity to share our burden with God’s Spirit, asking the Comforter to guide us. 

In my prayer with the woman whose family was going through their crisis, I prayed that God would give everyone involved patience and understanding, hope and strength, and an openness to God’s Spirit in the days and weeks ahead.  I asked that God would show a way out of this crisis.  I asked that God’s Spirit would bring some semblance of peace and perspective once again.  And, then I prayed for the ability to accept the outcomes that are surely to come.

Another fact is also certain in this life.  We have free will and there is much over which we DO have control and therefore much about which we need to make healthy decisions for ourselves and for our families.   But sometimes, the only thing that helps us make those necessary and healthy decisions is the Source, the Power, the Comforter, the God and Spirit of us all.  Jesus told his disciples, and you and me, “Everyone who asks will receive, everyone who searches will find, and the door will be opened for everyone who knocks.”  (Luke 11:10 CEV)  The Holy Spirit’s guidance is just a prayer away.

Remember what the disciples saw Jesus doing?  They saw him praying which prompted them to inquire how to pray. 

If you’re uncertain about how to pray, watch others.  When we see others praying, when we see children praying, when we see parents praying, when we see grandparents praying, when we see folks whom we don’t even know praying, watch them and listen to them.  And you will learn that prayer is getting in touch with what’s inside yourself and communicating this to God. 

From Paige and from the woman with whom I prayed, we have learned to keep our prayers simple, to ask for what we need, and to put our trust in the One to whom we have prayed.  Lord, teach us to pray in this way.   AMEN

Text:  Luke 10:38-42
22 July 2007                                       
Topic:  Stop, Look & Listen
 
When we were young, and learning how to cross the street safely, we were taught to “Stop, Look, and Listen.”  Small children learn best by repetition and by memorizing phrases that can be easily put into practice.  And so, in the case of crossing a street, teaching a small child to stop, look, and listen is a really good way of keeping them safe.
 
In our gospel reading for today, I believe Jesus is telling us to stop, look and listen for the Spirit’s presence in our midst.  In his visit to Martha’s home, he let it be known that doing work is simply incidental, and that learning the faith is an absolute essential.
 
Most of us have shopped in Lancaster County among the Amish and we know that their stores are never open on Sundays.  It’s the Lord’s Day and they simply don’t open their shops on those days.  Sunday is reserved for spending time in God’s Word and spending time with family and friends.  They have learned they can make enough money in six days, and on the seventh, they rest.
 
On a recent trip to the Amish Country, we went to Miller’s Natural Food Store, off Monterey Road, outside of Bird-in-Hand.  I picked up one of their business cards.  On it is listed the times they are open and the times they are closed.  Here’s the list of the days they are closed:  Sundays (of course!), New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Ascension Day, Whit Monday (the Monday after Pentecost), October 11 (it must be someone’s birthday!), Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and the day after Christmas, December 26.  That’s a full 61 days each year that Miller’s Natural Foods is not selling their produce, 17% of the time, they are closed.
 
Why?  Why are they closed?   They could be making money.  They could be expanding their business.  They could be serving their clientele 24-7! 
 
The answer is, they have deliberately chosen NOT to be always open.  They have chosen deliberately NOT to be always available.  They have chosen to do what Mary did in our gospel reading today.  They deliberately stop their normal routine, look at Jesus, and listen to his words, not only on Sundays, but on nine other religious days of the year as well.
 
Today, Emma Marie Scheivert is being baptized.  She has no clue about what’s happening to her today.  And she’ll never have a clue unless and until her parents and godparents and this entire body of believers decide to teach her how to stop, look and listen to the words of Jesus. 
 
In order for Emma to be safe in this world, in order for Emma to come to a saving knowledge of her baptism in the faith, she will need to be taught to stop, look and listen — to stop her daily routine regularly and faithfully, to look to Jesus for guidance and truth, and to listen to the promptings of the Spirit for her direction in life.
 
Martha, in our gospel, was not doing a bad thing in preparing a meal and serving it.  We all have to eat and we all enjoy the hospitality that is given to us when we visit family and friends.
 
But sometimes — and this was one of those times — we need to stop, look and listen like Mary did.   We need to stop all the busy-ness, get our priorities straight, set aside time we spend in God’s Word, and discipline ourselves to sit at the foot of Jesus, learning all we can about the life of faith he offers to each and every one of us.
 
The late Henri Nouwen had this to say about our busy-ness.  He was talking about the busyness of Christmas, but he could have been talking about the Fourth of July or Labor Day –– or our twelfth birthday –– or nearly any other ordinary day.  He said:  I often think:  “A life is like a day; it goes by so fast.  If I am so careless with my days, how can I be careful with my life?” 
 
He also said this:  In many ways we are like the busy person who walks up to a precious flower and says:  “What for God’s sake are you doing here?  Can’t you get busy someway?”  and then finds himself unable to understand the flower’s response:  “I am sorry sir, but I am just here to be beautiful.”  
 
Nouwen asks: How can we also come to this wisdom of the flower that being is more important than doing?
 
This story of Martha and Mary comes around every three years in the life of the church.  That isn’t nearly often enough, because we need to be reminded to get in touch with what is really important in the particular day that we are living.  We need to be reminded to look at the really special people in our lives –– and to SEE them –– to really SEE them –– to appreciate them –– to love them.
 
Yes, we have to attend to chores.  Yes, we have to earn a living.  Yes, we have to fix dinner and wash the dishes.  Yes, there are a thousand things that demand our attention.  Yes, those things are important –– but they aren’t ALL-important. 
 
Jesus said to Martha, “You are way too busy with all your chores.  Come and sit, like Mary is sitting, and just listen for a bit.  You’ll be glad you did.”
 
Some day, Emma will appreciate this routine of worship.  Some day, Emma will come to understand what Mary understood in the gospel, namely, it’s more important to sit at the foot of Jesus than it is to become overwhelmed by the work and worries of this world.
 
I pray each of us may have a blessed day of rest and fellowship, a blessed day of learning, and a blessed day of stopping, looking and listening to the Word of God in our midst.   AMEN

Text:  Luke 10:25-37
15 July 2007                           
Topic:  Unbounded Mercy

[This is a true story from National Geographic’s reporter, Neil Shea, online at  http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0612/feature3/online_extra.html]
            On the second floor of the military hospital, tucked away in a back corner, a tiny blond boy mumbles in the secret language of babies. He shudders beneath blankets and bandages, belly down on a large bed. Helicopters thump overhead, but the noise does not wake him. He is used to it now.
            His cheeks are pink, his hair so fair he could be Norwegian. But he is an 18-month-old Iraqi from a town near the Syrian border. He was severely burned in his home, and his parents sought help at a U.S. military base. Soldiers took him in, then flew him to Ibn Sina, the American-run hospital in Baghdad, [the same hospital that first treated ABC anchor, Bob Woodruff when he sustained his injuries in January 2006.]
            The boy…was not an unlucky bystander. He was not collateral damage. None of the forces fighting in Iraq pull blame for his burns. It was a domestic accident, his parents said. There was a boiling pot of soup. A confused scalding. Screams.
            In a way, he is fortunate because of the war. Thanks to it, he now sleeps in the best hospital in Iraq. Drugs soften his pain. American surgeons have begun grafting skin over the raw red patches on his arms, legs, and buttocks. Under Saddam Hussein, this would have been impossible. The boy might have died of the infections that follow burns.
            Scores more Iraqis than Americans are wounded or killed each day in Iraq. The hospital wards at Ibn Sina reflect this. After the car bombs and ambushes, the raids and street battles, Iraqi police, soldiers, civilians, and enemy insurgents flood into American emergency rooms. The U.S. is obligated to care for anyone injured as a direct consequence of war.
            Others, like the boy, are admitted too: children with insect stings, pregnant women, men with sexually transmitted diseases. They get in with the help of sympathetic soldiers and medics. They get in because doctors everywhere swear the same oath. Ibn Sina is an island of hope.
            The Americans work hard treating Iraqis, as hard as they would for anyone. Doctors slice charred skin away, neurosurgeons tug chunks of metal out of skulls, nurses stop bleeding in legs blown to hamburger….
            The burned boy has lain [in Ibn Sina] six days. Eventually he will be turned back into the care of his parents. The nurses in the ICU worry. Nearly all of them say the worst part of their job is treating injured children, and lately there have been many. The boy’s odds of infection and other complications will jump when he leaves. And there is more: The nurses suspect the boy’s parents abuse him.
            Maj. Christian Swift, a nurse from Maine who manages the ICU, says the parents’ story detailing how the boy was injured didn’t add up. They said he fell into a pot of boiling soup. Or that he pulled it down on himself. The story changed. Back home in the States, nurses would have called in child protective services. “It raises a lot of red flags,” Swift says. “But we don’t really have the social infrastructure to dig any deeper. You can’t pass judgment, but the question was raised. So you’ve got it there in the back of your head.”
            The boy’s small body shakes with each sleeping breath, his blond hair soft as corn silk. Army nurses check in as he burbles through his dreams. They coo at him when he wakes. Soon he will leave, his bed taken by another Iraqi. But for now he is safe, his pain dulled. At least, the nurses say, we can do this for him.
            In our gospel for today, a man asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”  Jesus replied by telling him a story. 
A man was attacked and left for dead.  Two different people passed him by, not wanting to get involved, not wanting to soil their hands, not wanting to ruin their reputations. 
A third man, unlikely, and possibly hated by the person who’d been attacked, stopped and nursed the injured man, found him medical attention down the road, and even left some money for his future care, promising to return and check on his progress some time later.
Jesus then asked the man who wondered who his neighbors were, “Which of these three people was the real neighbor to the man who was attacked and left for dead?”  The man answered, “Of course, the one who showed mercy.”
Jesus said, “Go and do the same.”
Thank God, Americans are caring for Iraqis in the midst of this terrible war.  Thank God for the Good Samaritans here and overseas.  Thank God for the grace and mercy which saves us and then bids us to “Go and show this same God-given grace and mercy to others.”   AMEN

Text:  Galatians 5:1,13-25
1 July 2007                             
Topic:  Christ sets us free!     
 
“What is freedom?”  We have to ask this question when cars laden with incendiary materials show up in places that are free, in places that otherwise are peaceful and wonderful places to visit. What is the freedom we so much cherish that seems so dangerous?
Yesterday in Glasgow, and on Friday in London, fiery bombs were found in cars with one of them actually igniting.  In the free society of Great Britain, people with evil intentions tried to kill other people with car bombs.  Could it happen in the United States?  Of course it could.  So, would it be safer if our society were less free, more restrictive?
During this week when we are anticipating the celebration of our nation’s 231^st birthday, we ask the question, “What is freedom?”
Politically speaking, we say we are free when we can gather freely, vote freely, speak freely, and worship freely.  And by that definition, we DO live freely in these United States.  We DO live freely as we gather, as we vote, as we speak and as we worship without anyone telling us how or when we may or may not do any of these things. 
And yet, there are people walking around freely, gathering freely with others, plotting and scheming to do us harm, forcing us to be on guard, and sometimes even afraid.  In this free society, we are rightfully being urged by our government to be vigilant, to keep our eyes open and to watch for danger that may be lurking somewhere nearby.
So, are we free?  Yes and no, if we are only thinking politically. 
But religiously speaking, we are totally free.  As St. Paul said in our second lesson for today, “Christ Jesus has set us free!  And this means we are really free!” (Galatians 5:12a CEV)  In Christ, we are free, no matter where we are living, no matter what others are doing around us, no matter who may be plotting against us.  We are totally free.
However, as St. Paul also says, we are not to “…use our freedom as an excuse to do anything we want.”  Rather, our freedom in Christ gives us the “…opportunity to serve each other with love.” He goes on to say, “…the Law can be summed up in the command to love others as much as we love ourselves.”  (Galatians 5:13b-14 CEV) 
And so, in Christ, we do not live simply for ourselves, preserving and defending only OUR freedoms, but we go out of our way to help others be free, to help others know the freedom we enjoy, and to help them find freedom in Christ.
I saw a bumper sticker on an SUV this week.  It said, “If you love your freedom, thank a vet.” 
Political freedom is won and preserved by veterans in the military and, I would like to add, by those who vote their conscience at the time of elections.  If we love our freedom, we must honor and give thanks to those who live and die to keep us free.  And, we must give honor and thanks to all who vote, for they, too, help to keep us free.
Religious freedom was won for us by Christ who, by his death and resurrection, sets us free to give up our selfish desires and, instead, helps us seek the gifts of the Spirit. 
Lord knows, we get caught up in selfish desires.  If you’ve ever wanted to find a complete list of what it means to live in sin, just look at St. Paul’s list in our second lesson for today.  “People’s desires make us give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds.”  When we follow our base desires, we “…worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with.”  When we don’t care what we do, we “…become jealous, angry, and selfish.  We not only argue and cause trouble, we are envious, get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well.”  (Galatians 5:19-20a  CEV) 
In short, when we are NOT in Christ, we are NOT free, we are slaves to our sin and are, instead, captive to everything that draws us away from God.
But thankfully, Christ has set us free!  This means we are really free, free to be “…loving, happy, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled.”  (Galatians 5:22-23a CEV)  For when we are “in Christ,” we belong to Christ and he helps us put away our selfish feelings and desires and, mercifully, replaces them with desires to serve each other in love.
What makes the Church different from society, here and abroad, is that we actually confront the evil that lives within us and actively encourage one another to find meaning and joy in a life of service to and for one another.  Political society can talk about service; the Church expects it.
Remember what Jesus said at the time of his departure from this earth?  He said, [After I leave, “the Holy Spirit will come and help you, because the Father will send the Spirit to take my place.  The Spirit will teach you everything and will remind you of what I said while I was with you.  I give you peace, the kind of peace that only I can give.  It isn’t like the peace that this world can give.  So don’t be worried or afraid.”  (John 14:26-27 CEV)
Jesus did not leave us without the means by which to effectively change this world.  He gave us the Holy Spirit, that power within us from above, that can truly make a difference, if we but listen.
Politically speaking, we can only work at being free.  But religiously speaking, through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, and in the Holy Spirit, we are made fully free, and enabled to serve one another lovingly, happily, peacefully, patiently, kindly, faithfully, gently, and with self-control. Furthermore, when we are living in and led by the Holy Spirit, there is no need to worry or be afraid. 
We live in a temporal, political world, which can only work to be free.  In Christ, we live freely and we serve freely, here and anywhere on earth.  Christ has set us free.  And this means we are really free. 
So, let’s not worry or be afraid even when we know there are dangers all around us.  Instead, let us use every occasion to love and serve others as the Spirit gives us opportunity and thereby seek to change those who would do us harm. 
There are no guarantees.  Jesus didn’t say our good deeds would automatically provide the positive changes we seek.  He only bids us give up our selfish ways and serve others.  In this, there is true freedom.  AMEN