The Vintage BMW Gathering at Old Salem 2011

We had loads of fun at the vintage event. I had many more comments than last year on the '75 2fer, but no one wrote me a check on the spot to buy her! Some were interested and we will see if anyone bites. It was fun to get the car on the road for a 300 mile round trip. She ran great!

Newsletter - June/July

From the Pastor’s Desk…

A few people in the congregation have been asking me about the “headlines”. USA Today read: “Presbyterians clear way for ordaining gays, lesbians.” The PCUSA (our denomination) recently passed Amendment 10-A which changes the wording of our ordination standards. If you have been keeping up with the previous newsletters (April & May) then you know the particulars! In the April news I shared the specific change that would occur in the Book of Order. I noted the division this has caused across the country and within individual churches. This is a difficult time in our denomination. Questions remain unanswered: How will this affect the local church, our church? What does this mean for a denomination already losing members? In the May newsletters, I spoke of keeping a balance of grace and truth. If we err on issues, we often err by giving grace away without regard to God’s truth or using truth as a weapon without the grace of God. I spoke of the woman caught in adultery (John 8) and Jesus extended tremendous grace in that he did not condemn her and yet he held her accountable to the truth commanding that she go and sin no more. We are all held to the standards of God’s truth and we are all extended unmerited favor from God. For me, the issues boils down to scripture, its authority and interpretation. The complexity of this issue raises many more questions than answers. For some there is very little complexity. The session has been discussing this issue for some time (more so lately) and we have decided to begin a new time of discernment with the congregation. Beginning Wednesday, June 1, 6:30pm, we will open conversation on the issues involved. This first meeting will primarily discuss the information about Amendment 10-A. We have invited a neighbor pastor (W.D. Hasty) who voted for the amendment and I am one who voted against the amendment (WD and I are still good friends!). We will have at least one session member share thoughts and we invite others to come and share their thoughts. We have been working in our session meetings to remember that in all our discussion we need to respect one another’s opinions, love one another, and help each other to discern what God is calling us to do. I hope our congregational information meetings will also share these characteristics. We will gather around one of our favorite activities (bring a covered dish) and share in fellowship and learning! I hope you will come!

Sermon

Sermon # 1043
May 29, 2011
Deuteronomy 8:1-20
Dr. Ed Pettus

“Remembrance and Gratitude”

This weekend our nation recognizes Memorial Day, a day to remember those who have given their lives for the sake of country, freedom, and all that serving one’s country means as well as all that serving God means. Remembering those who have given their lives is crucial to the on-going life of our country. When we forget those who have died, we also forget why we are who we are as Americans. We forget the blessings of freedom and service and hope. Memorial Day is a day to remember and to give thanks.
For Christians, Memorial Day can also be a reminder that God calls us to remember and give thanks. As the people God delivered out of Egypt were about to cross the Jordan River into the promised land, Moses reiterated the importance of keeping commandment and remembering their deliverance. Moses tells the people that they must diligently observe the commandments. The commandments are crucial to their very existence. These first ten verses of Deuteronomy eight acknowledge the providential care of God during their forty years in the wilderness. The danger is that the people might forget that God cared for them. The message is that they are to remember: “Remember the long way that the Lord your God has lead you these forty years” (8:2).

The memory is one of lessons learned: a memory of humility, testing, dependence upon God, so that they would learn “That one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that come from the mouth of God” (8:3). Ultimately Israel was to come to understand that they were dependent upon God for their daily bread, for their daily existence, and that life is not sustained just by bread and water, but by God’s very word. In this word is our life. We can eat all the bread we want everyday, but if we are not “eating” of God’s word we will be malnourished in spirit. The prophet Jeremiah said, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart” (15:16). It is in God’s word where we find joy and delight.

These people have wandered for forty years in the wilderness learning the lessons that will sustain them for the rest of their life as they prepare to enter into a new land. This land will not be like Egypt where they had lived as slaves. This land will not be like the wilderness where they were fed manna daily – not too much, not too little. This land is a land of abundance: A land with flowing streams, a land with springs and under ground waters, a land of wheat, barley, vines, figs, pomegranates, olive trees, honey – a land without scarcity – without the scarcity of the wilderness. This land will have more than enough water, food, and things like iron and copper. Verse ten concludes with: “You shall eat your fill and bless the Lord you God for the good land that he has given you.”

This could easily be a metaphor for our life. When we come to know Christ as Lord and Savior we are no longer subject to the wilderness of sin and bondage, but set free to a “promised land” of abundance.

We eat our fill most of the time, that is, when we are not over eating beyond full! And we are called to bless the Lord for the gifts of food and goods and home and money – for it is God who has given us the good life, just as God had given Israel the good land.

Deuteronomy 8:11-20 then takes on virtually the same themes but with more of a warning for Israel. Once Israel enters the land, eats its fill, builds its homes, multiplies its goods and livestock – then Israel will have a new temptation they had not encountered before. “When you have eaten your fill…when your herds and flocks have multiplied…then do not exalt yourself, forgetting the Lord your God” (8:12-14). “Do not say to yourself, ‘My power and the might of my own hand have gotten me this wealth’” (8:17). The temptation in a land of abundance is to forget God! The temptation in a land of plenty is to forget – to forget soldiers who gave their lives, to forget God who blesses us, to forget God’s Word that brings joy and delight. The temptation is to believe that we have gotten what we have by our own means, by our own power and work and resources. Moses reminds Israel and us: “But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, so that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your ancestors” (8:18). The warning to Israel is if they forget God and follow others gods they would surely perish. There are no guarantees that they will continue to be forgiven, but the covenant is conditional, dependent upon Israel’s willingness to learn from the wilderness lessons – to depend on God, to humble themselves, and to understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We do not live by our power alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We do not live by our material wealth alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
We do not live by our wits alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
You get the message.

Our gratitude comes from remembering that all we have is from God. In the scarce times of the wilderness or in the abundance of the promised land – we are grateful. The temptation is to believe that we did it ourselves: we acquired our wealth, our homes, our cars, our abilities and skills all by ourselves. The call to remember keeps us along the right way of commandment, of story telling, discipline, and proper perspective. Therefore, we practice a lifetime of gratitude, for gratitude reminds us of the lessons learned in the wilderness, in our own lean times of life. We are dependent on God in good times and in bad. The words “thank you” imply that someone else has done something for us. An affluent society has trouble remembering that.

I’ve worked with teens from wealthy families and teens from poor families, and those from poverty were the most receptive to hearing the gospel because they were in the wilderness. Those who had all they needed and more did not think the gospel had anything to say to them. They had no need for a savior – they had no need for anything. That is the temptation of abundance and wealth, to think you have done it all yourself and you have no need, no dependence on God, no need for God’s word.

I think that is why Jesus spoke about the difficulty of a rich person getting into the kingdom of heaven. One lesson from Deuteronomy eight is that riches often bring amnesia. You know how it is when someone becomes famous or wealthy quickly – their friends tell them: “Don’t forget where you come from.” Riches are not the problem, but when we say that we are the source of those riches, when we forget God, we forget where we have come from. That is why it is hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, because riches tempt us to forget where the riches really came from – from God. Riches are not the problem, after all, God gave Israel great riches in the promised land: flowing stream, wheat, barely, vines, figs, and land where they would lack nothing! As long as we remember that such blessings are from God and we use those blessings in gratitude to God, God will indeed continue to bless. That’s the good news.


Israel was reminded to practice a lifetime of gratitude and remembrance.
A lifetime of gratitude is the continuing discipline of memory - overcoming our amnesia.
A lifetime of gratitude is the continuing dependence on God - overcoming autonomy as a way of life.
Gratitude is demonstrated in obedience to every word that comes from the mouth of God. Giving thanks through material means, visual, quantifiable means that show our gratitude. But even the material marks of gratitude are spiritual in nature. They are spiritual because God gives everything we have. Nothing we own is outside of God’s provision and being connected to God makes all the gifts we own and share and give and acquire, visible expressions of spirituality and gratitude.

Today we give thanks for this memory of abundance, for these words from God, and particularly on this weekend, for those who gave given their lives for the sake of liberty. So, we express our gratitude and remember! Remember. It is the message of Memorial Day; it is the message of God’s word. Remember and give thanks. Amen.

Sermon

Sermon # 1042
May 22, 2011
John 14.1-14
Dr. Ed Pettus


"Finding Our Way"

"Do not let your hearts be troubled." Jesus has told the disciples that he will not be with them much longer and they are understandably trouble by this news. Any of us would be troubled if we heard someone we loved and cared for would be leaving. Jesus begins his farewell with the words, "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Most of the time, this is a hard saying. Who is not from time to time troubled, nervous, or anxious? We become troubled when bad things happen to us or to our family or friends. We get nervous when we face things that are unfamiliar. We are anxious when there is uncertainty about our future. “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” We are indeed troubled by death, loss, stress in relationships, and all that comes with being a part of the human condition. We are so inundated with troubling news every day that it becomes even more difficult to not be troubled. Even on our best days we can turn on the nightly news and get so discouraged by what we see and hear that we become troubled. Terrorism, fuel prices, politics and the list grows until we are not just troubled, but numbed by it all. Of course we can turn off the television and block some of the trouble from around the world or even in our own community, but trouble hits us personally and there is no getting away from it.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” How? How, Jesus, can we live without troubled hearts? How can we see what we see in this world and not become troubled? How can we, like the disciples, lose someone close to us and not be troubled by it? Does Jesus mean for us to just be at peace 24/7 no matter what comes our way? Does Jesus mean for us to be constantly hopeful and always looking for the best in every situation? We’ve seen things go wrong, terribly wrong. How can we not grow troubled? I am troubled by the direction of the PCUSA and people on both sides of the ordination issue are troubled by the division this has caused in the church. We are troubled that some will leave the denomination, some will seek to reverse the ordination change. Some rejoice, others weep. What might be the most troubling result is that we are a divided people.


The disciple Thomas is like many today who are searching for the way to peace and hope. We are searching for the way where our hearts are not troubled. "How can we know the way?" That is Thomas’ question, “How can we know the way?” It is perhaps more difficult to know the way in modern times. Just look at the options. We are saturated with words like diversity, pluralism, and multi-culturalism. With those words come many religions, many beliefs, even many interpretations of scripture. We are asked to be tolerant, to accept that our way is not necessarily the only way to God. We are told to respect the rights of others to believe what they want to believe. We live in a very pluralistic society. One of the ideas today is that no single truth claim has the right over any other truth claim. That is, every truth claim must be equally true and no one has the right to claim his or her truth or vision of reality is more true than anyone else's. This opens the door for all kinds of views, theologies, interpretations and a diversity that is so far apart it can seldom find any way of unity. It all makes Thomas’ question all the more pertinent for today, “How can we know the way?”
Jesus is pointing us toward a relationship that reminds us of our hope and a promise for the future. Jesus is pointing us toward a relationship that really can bring peace and hope – that really can let our hearts be trouble free.


I read an article some time ago that discussed the concern of what the writer called the "lay liberal faith." At the core of this type of faith is that one faith is as good as another, as long as you are faithful to your truth. The article spoke of the understanding that no one has a right to witness to anyone else about their faith. These types of people have a concern for their children to have moral training, but any kind will do as good as another. In this particular article, the people being interviewed happen to be Presbyterian, but they could not give any reason why they were Presbyterian. As one said, they certainly don't believe in hell and eternal punishment. That is just old fogy stuff. The conclusion of the article was that many people have an assortment of religious ideas but no central cohesive commitment that is strong enough to shape their life. It is a vague belief firmly held. It is the kind of faith that is, what I call, “just enough faith.” Just enough faith to feel good about one’s self or just enough faith to not be a non-believer. The problem is it is also just enough faith to leave one with a vague belief that also leaves the heart more troubled than not.


How can we know the way? The way is offered in a multitude of ways in our culture: through other religions, through ideologies, humanism, naturalism, through politics, economics, science, and technology. If you want a search for truth you will soon be spinning in circles because everyone will be pointing you in their direction. Now we are faced with a denomination that is also divided. This is not the first time and will probably not be the last.


To be faithful to our confession, I have to say that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, for all persons. Now, our society today tells me that I cannot say that, at least I cannot say it to anyone else because I have to tolerate and respect their beliefs or lack of beliefs or their vague beliefs. To be faithful, I have to say that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, for all persons. I think that when I say that, I mean to acknowledge that I stand in this tradition by faith and it is not something that I can use to coerce other people, nor would I want to force it upon anyone. That gives me an appropriate humility, but that it is also where we must stand as believers – that this is our truth claim, which stands against all others.

My perception is that many Christians are saying that to be Christian means that I never assert or bear witness to my truth claim over against any other truth claim. I think that is also watering down the church and the gospel. We are afraid to make our truth claim, so we do not know what to say, or even worse, we do not know the way, the truth, and the life. I do not mean that we don't know what Jesus said or what the Bible says. I mean we may not know Jesus Christ himself.


Jesus did not say, “My teachings are the truth.” But they are truthful. He did not say, “My preaching is the way.” But it leads to the way. He did not say, “My parables are the life.” But they show us life. He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” “I am.” Not the words, not the doctrines of the church, not the theologies of humanity, not the dogmas or systems or laws, not our interpretation of scripture, but Jesus Christ himself. Deitrich Bonhoffer in the book The Cost of Discipleship writes, “When we are called to follow Christ, we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to his person. The grace of his call bursts all the bonds of legalism. It is a gracious call, a gracious commandment. It transcends the difference between the law and the gospel. Christ calls, the disciple follows: that is grace and commandment in one. ‘I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy commandments’ (Psalm 119:45).” [p. 63]
Being Christian, and thus a disciple, means we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to the person of Jesus Christ.

Our proclamation is the unique witness to Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus himself is the way and the reason for the journey. To be on the way to the Father's house is to know the truth and to have the life of Jesus Christ; it is to believe in God and in Jesus Christ.

Some one may ask, "well, what about the Jews and the Muslims and the Buddhists and others? Are not their beliefs just another way to God?" It is not our concern to bash others because of their beliefs. I do not know about Tao or Buddhism or the Koran, but what I do know is Jesus Christ. That means that Jesus must be proclaimed as the way to God to all willing to listen. It is our call to proclaim the truth we believe. It is our task to proclaim Jesus Christ. It is not our calling to offer various options.


Ben Johnson has said, "I think we need to think about church and kingdom. That the Spirit is at work in a kingdom way in the kingdom of God stuff that's happening in the culture, but the church needs a narrowing of its focus, a clarity of its convictions. We need this so we can live out an authentic Christian life and let it be reflected in the culture and give us some keys for interpreting the culture.”

The apostle Paul had clarity of conviction. In 1 Corinthians 2.2 he says, "For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified." Douglas John Hall says "what Paul means when he asserts that he is determined to know and to preach only the one thing, 'Jesus Christ, and him crucified,' is that for him this represents the foundation and core of the whole Christian profession of belief. That is to say, he intends to consider every subject from the perspective that one acquires upon it when it is considered from the vantage point of the cross" Douglass John Hall (p. 363-364).

Jesus Christ is the Truth - not a teaching, concept, or idea, but the person of Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. Jesus is the way because he is the way to God. Jesus is the truth because he is the truth of God. Jesus is the life because he is the life of God among God's people.


We do not hold firmly to a vague idea or belief - we hold to a person in Jesus Christ as the way to God. We hold firmly to an exclusive attachment to the person of Jesus Christ.
All of life then becomes focused through the person of Jesus Christ. That is not to say that we will always have clarity of vision or that we will never be troubled in our hearts, but it is to say that the unique way to God for this community of faith and for you and me is Jesus Christ. In holding to that, we have confidence that the trouble for today is not the final word for us, but that there is a future filled with hope and joy and peace, and not a bit of trouble.

Sometimes we are confused by the complexity of our surroundings and it seeps into our faith and life. But when it all comes down to the core of our faith, we are founded in the centrality of Jesus Christ who is the way to God. We are rooted in the truth of Jesus Christ as the unique revelation of God. We stand firm in the belief that Jesus is the life and all else, all else will lead us to an eternal death.

How can we know that way? Jesus said, “Believe in God, believe also in me.” Only in knowing Jesus Christ. Jesus said in this passage, “I will come again.” He did not come yesterday, as some predicted, but he will come. On that day we will know fully the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. We look forward to that day, a day when we will indeed be free of all our troubles! Amen.

Sermon

Sermon # 1041
May 15, 2011
Romans 12:1-21
Dr. Ed Pettus

“An Appeal”

I appeal to you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God…I beseech you…I entreat you…I urge you…
Paul begins this twelve chapter of Romans with an appeal. It is not just a casual “this would be a nice suggestion”, but a much more urgent plea, from the depths of the heart for God’s people to do some things and in this case to not do some other things. These things are interconnected in such a way that if you do the good things you won’t do the bad or at least will not want to. If you do the bad things you will not do the good. It seems to me that, at least in this writing, Paul addresses two aspects of our being: our body and our mind. For Paul, the word “body” means dealing with our whole being, because in Jewish thinking there was no separating body, soul, and spirit. The body was viewed as one united entity. No “parts is parts.” No categories called religious life and secular life. Everything is interconnected, body, life, faith.

So, when Paul says,
I. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, he is saying:
“Take your everyday, ordinary life – your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life – and place it before God as an offering” (The Message). All of our life comes under the umbrella God. There is no pulling apart our live so that one part comes under the religious me and another part falls under the secular me.
Too often we talk about our lives in parts. We say, “God is an important part of my life.” When we say that I always want to ask, “So, what part is God not involved in?” The Bible never talks this way. For instance we read in Deuteronomy 32, “Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law. This is no trifling matter for you, but rather your very life.” (46-47) In this case the commandments give life to Israel. Apart from the word of God the people perish. The word is not just a part of their life; it is their life!

Later, the Apostle Paul writes to the church in Colossians, “for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (3-4). Christ is your life. Christ is not just a part that we deal with on Sundays. Christ is my life, your life, our life. You have probably seen those t-shirts that have some sport that says, “Basketball is not a matter of life and death, it’s more important than that.” Another says that about fishing or soccer. (The golf one is the only one that is really true!) Well, our life in Christ is the only matter of ultimate importance, for our life is hidden in Christ.

Paul is asking us to take our life in Christ that seriously, to present the whole of who we are before God, our every moment, our all in all. Jesus said it this way, “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13). I believe Jesus broadens the field to include more than laying down own one’s life in death as he did on the cross for us. I believe Jesus also intends the life giving that Paul speaks about in Romans 12, to lay down our lives as a living sacrifice to God. Jesus did that long before he hung on the cross. He gave his life when he gave time to teach the crowds. He gave his life when he healed a blind man. He gave himself as a living sacrifice to serve, to love, to call, to preach, to show compassion, to feed, to forgive, to reveal truth.

We give our lives over to God when we serve one another, when we give financially to the work of God, when we commit ourselves to work in the church and in the community, when we go to work, attend a ball game, eat out or vacation. Presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice is giving our lives to God for worship and service. It is giving our lives to teach. A daughter giving of her life to care for her aging mother. A parent giving time to his child. A soldier giving himself for freedom. It is also giving over our lives to live by God’s commands, to live as Mary did when she said, “Let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). We submit our lives to scripture in order to live in obedience to the will of God, to find our life in Christ and the freedom and grace and love and mercy that leads us to wholeness.

A negative command follows:
II. Do not be conformed to this world.
“Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking” (The Message). One of the ways we present our bodies before God is to think about how we live in our culture. Think about what effect the culture has on our life of faith. Our lives can become so busied by the pace of our culture – the speed of technology, the flood of information, the fads that change with the tides, or the ideas that challenge our faith. Because it all comes at us so fast in the modern life, we fail to stop and think. Maybe that’s the first sign that we have become well adjusted to the world – we live within its frantic pace, torn away from godly things which are, more often than not, only known in slowing down, in solitude, or in quiet, in prayer and study.

Perhaps you have had time to stop long enough to reflect, to find the joy of refreshment in Christ, comfort in time spent in prayer. Too often it takes a tragedy in our lives to slow us down. God once said through Isaiah, “For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel: In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (30:15).

Paul helps us learn how to begin to change our lives and turn ourselves toward God, to present our bodies as living sacrifices. I cannot tell you how to do that or what to do. That takes discernment on your part and my part. Each of us has to decide what activities will help our life in Christ and which will hinder our life in Christ.

Paul helps us with that question as well when he says,
III. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.
“Fix your attention on God” (The Message). Renew our minds, renew our thinking, renew our attitudes, renew our paradigms, renew our direction, renew our goals. How and what we think sets the direction we will go. In the work I have done in Christian spirituality I assume three things about our situation:
1) the ways in which we have learned to think affect how we read the Bible,
2) how we read the Bible affects how we imagine God,
3) how we imagine God affects how we live out the faith.
4)
If our thinking is aimed at a God who is distant, the “big guy in the sky” image, then our faith will be distant, but if our images center around a God who is personal, intimate, and relevant to our life, then our faith will be relevant to our living.
Paul understood that if we transform our thinking we would not become overly concerned with self. We will not be conformed to the culture – but we will live a radically different life than those who live by the ways of the world.

How can we transform our minds? Paul says this,
IV. Do not think too highly of yourself.
“Do not misrepresent yourselves” (The Message).
Psalm 131 says it this way, “O LORD, my heart is not lifted up, my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.”

Transforming the mind means humbling one’s self before God. We submit ourselves to God presence.

Humility is a lost trait in the world. So many voices tell us to lift ourselves up, to look out for self before considering anyone else. Perhaps the most asked question when we deal with situations is, “What’s in it for me?” It is a question that dominates our culture. Everything is about me, about the individual. My life is to be looked after first, and then I will concern myself with God. This is the way of the world and so often the way of our culture. I take care of myself – I make myself who I am – I am responsible for who I am and who I will be, then I will check with God to see what God can do for me.

Humility sees it quite differently; humility means placing our lives at God’s feet; “a living sacrifice” is Paul’s term. Nothing comes ahead of God, nothing comes before God in priority, but our whole being is given over to God – for God’s care and love. I lay down my life, my priorities, my hopes, dreams, cares, concerns before God in prayer. I present my body a living sacrifice, which is my spiritual worship.

Last Tuesday night, the Twin Cities Presbytery became the 87th vote to pass the controversial Amendment 10-A removing the nation standard for ordination which included fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman and chastity in singleness. It has been a 30 year discussion in the church that has, for the first time, moved in a new direction. Some rejoice in this change, others weep. Our denomination is divided. Four churches from one Presbytery were dismissed from the denomination a few days after this vote. More will seek to move out. Some will stay to fight another day, but as I think about the Presbyterian Church USA in light of Romans 12, it amazes me that we can be so divided on scripture interpretation and standards for ordination in the church.
One side might call this decision a renewal of the mind according to Romans 12. The other side claims we are conforming to our culture, conforming to the ways of the world.

If you keep up with the church newsletter, you know that I was opposed to this ordination standard change. I am one who weeps for the PCUSA.
My appeal today is that we can work together responding to Paul’s appeal to offer ourselves to God, to be transformed by God’s Spirit, to resist the temptations presented us by the world, and to discern God’s will. If you have been reading the church news, then you know that I seek to express God’s grace and love to all people, while holding fast to the truth of God’s word. As William Campbell says in his book Turning Controversy into Church Ministry: “Grace without truth pampers, confuses, and even deceives. Truth without grace cuts, wounds, and destroys.” I believe God calls us to holiness and to offer only grace without truth has lead us to the current decision we have in our denomination. To offer truth without grace only turns people away from God’s church.

Ours is a time to offer our lives to God in humility and repentance. To do all we can to discern God’s will for us and for the church. To pray and search the scriptures. Paul’s appeal is still as poignant as it was the day he wrote to the church in Rome. Let us seek God in all things and follow the command of Jesus to love one another in the process.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Amen.

Sermon

Sermon # 1040
May 8, 2011
Luke 24:13-35
Dr. Ed Pettus

"The Cost of Discipleship"

What are we asked to “give up” to follow Jesus? Often people will complain that they do not get to do anything if they commit to believing in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. “I can’t party anymore.” “I can’t drink or smoke or hang out with my old friends.” The misconception is that Christianity is all about “thou shalt not”. What many fail to see is that faith in Jesus Christ leads us to more of what is possible than what is not. Faith in Christ gives us more freedom than not. But the words do not sound like it upon first hearing…deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, Jesus said.

Our story for the day is the road to Emmaus story. This is one of the great stories of our faith as a part of the resurrection testimonies. In this story we see many themes:
• It reveals the anxiety and confusion over crucifixion and resurrection.
• It opens the beauty of scripture as Jesus teaches how the Old Testament gives witness to himself.
• The disciples are themselves another witness to the story of the death and resurrection of Christ.
• The narrator and the reader both know that the one who joins the two disciples is Jesus, but the two walking along on this journey do not recognize him (at first).
• Jesus is the preacher and the one preached!
• One of my favorite phrases includes their “hearts burning” as Jesus taught them.
• There is the wonder of their eyes being opened at the table.
• I interpret the story as a metaphor for the Christian life. We are on a journey with the Christ who walks with us, but more often than not we do not recognize him until we look back on the journey and see that he was with us the whole time!

One of the questions we like to ask about the story is why these two could not recognize Jesus. Some suggest he may have just had a hooded cloak. Perhaps he looked different after three days in the tomb. Others claim it was a supernatural restriction.

Stanley Hauerwas relates a story that may also offer us a unique interpretation: "The story of the Emmaus road neatly challenges our presumption that a resurrected Lord would be readily recognizable. We are simply told that 'two of them' were leaving Jerusalem, walking toward Emmaus, discussing what had happened over the past few days. It seems that they must have seen, for example the cleansing of the Temple or perhaps observed the examination of Jesus before the Sanhedrin. Perhaps these people may well have been following Jesus for some time, having heard the Sermon on the Mount or having observed his miracles. They seem to be close associates of Jesus, not perhaps among the apostles, but nonetheless people deeply attracted to what Jesus was about.
I tend to think of these two as admirers. I do so because they remind me of a story that Jim McClendon reports about Clarence Jordan. Clarence Jordan was the founder of the Koinonia Farm near Americus, Georgia. It was set up to be an interracial community before anyone knew what civil rights were all about. Jordan himself was a pacifist as well as an integrationist and thus was not a popular figure in Georgia, even though he came from a prominent family.
The Koinonia Farm, by its very nature, was controversial, of course, it was in trouble. McClendon reports that in the early fifties Clarence approached his brother Robert Jordan (later a state senator and justice of the Georgia Supreme Court) to ask him to legally represent the Koinonia Farm. Robert responded to Clarence's request:
"Clarence, I can't do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I've got."
"We might lose everything too, Bob."
"It's different for you."
"Why is it different? I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me about the same question he did you. He asked me, 'Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.' And I said, 'Yes,' what did you say?"
"I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point."
"Could that point by any chance be the – the cross?"
"That's right. I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I'm not getting myself crucified."
"Then I don't believe you're a disciple. You're an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you're an admirer not a disciple."
"Well now, if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn't have a church, would we?"
Clarence said, "The question is, do you have a church?"


Good story, challenging story. What might we be willing to risk to follow Jesus? What could we “give up” for the sake of discipleship? What parts of our life are we holding back to just admire Jesus?
I don't mean to ask these questions in order to come down on anyone because I ask myself the same question. Would I, have I, will I, follow Jesus all the way to the cross and perhaps onto the cross? Will I have the courage when needed to stand up for what I believe as a Christian no matter the cost?

"Then [Jesus] said to them all, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it. What does it profit them if they gain the whole world, but lose or forfeit themselves?" (Luke 9.23-25)


One of the most quoted statements from Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, states, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die" (99).

That is what Paul means when he says that he has been crucified with Christ. That is not an image we are drawn to with excitement. Is Paul talking about a literal death – hanging on a cross? Well, of course, we know that that is not what is called for here, it is far more than that! We are called to die to ourselves, to give up our desire to be autonomous, pretending that we can live without Jesus at the center of our being. It is dying to the sin that can dominate the natural self.

I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

We are not asked to hang on a cross, but we are asked to hang up our pride, and lust, and selfishness, and anxiety about being the first and the best and number one. Admirers of Jesus will not go that far, they will not be crucified with Christ. They will stand at a distance and observe with great interest what Jesus Christ has done, they will sit at safe range and watch disciples do crazy things for Christ like simplify their lifestyles, or witness of God's love to people they meet, or watch them pray about everything, or trust that God will do what God has promised in the scriptures, deny themselves some things for the sake of God’s kingdom, you know, crazy stuff!!!

Perhaps disciples stay in Jerusalem on the same day that they hear about the body being gone. Maybe admirers set off for Emmaus. That may be reading too much into the story. Yet, what amazes me about this story…Jesus comes to these two who are walking away from the scene. That sheds a ray of hope for all of us who are content to sit back at a distance and admire what Jesus has done for the world. Jesus comes to the travelers who are not willing to stay one more hour to see if the women were right and the body was gone from the tomb. Jesus appears and eventually, at the breaking of the bread, makes himself known to these two who are struggling with a hope they had had that Jesus was the one to redeem Israel.

We are not sure what happened to these two Emmaus travelers. The story continues to say that while they were telling the disciples about their encounter with Jesus, that Jesus appeared to them again. Jesus led them to Bethany where he blessed them and then was taken up into heaven. And then Luke says, "they worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy; and they were continually in the temple blessing God."

I imagine Cleopas and his friend stayed there this time, in awe with the others, worshiping and blessing God. I imagine they responded a bit differently to Jesus from this time forward, no longer as admirers, but as disciples.

I think we sometimes feel we can be content with admiration for Jesus rather than risking discipleship, but admiration is not what Jesus calls us to. Take up your cross and follow. Lose your life for his sake. These are not easy words to hear, but they are the words of life that bring us to a personal relationship with the person of Jesus Christ.

I remember the story of a church that offered a discipleship course to the community and someone called the office to ask how much the course would cost. The secretary told the caller that the study was free. The caller responded, “Well there must be some cost to the course. How much is it?” The secretary said, “There is no charge. It is offered for free to anyone.” The caller insisted that she pay and kept asking, “How much is the cost?” Finally, the secretary relented and said, “Listen, if you come and take this course and follow it through…it will cost you everything!”

What are we asked to “give up” to follow Jesus? The real answer is - everything. Amen.

Newsletter - May (Grace and Truth)

From the pastor’s desk…

“Grace without truth pampers, confuses, and even deceives. Truth without grace cuts, wounds, and destroys.” These words come from W. P. Campbell in his book Turning Controversy into Church Ministry. When Jesus calls us to obedient holy living, he gives us his word, the words of the Bible, to teach us and guide us in becoming more like him. When Jesus calls us to walk by the Spirit, he gives us the great gift of grace, unmerited favor, to enable us to know more and more about God’s love for us and for the world. We learn from our sacred text that there are none righteous; we all fall short of the glory of God. We also learn that we are called to a holy life that needs the scripture to determine what that life may look like. Grace and truth are inseparable in this journey.
When Jesus was asked about the woman caught in adultery in John 8, he did not call her names, demean her in any way, but instead the turned to the crowd who wanted to stone her to death and challenged them: “If any of you are without sin, cast the first stone.” After the crowd dispersed, Jesus asked the woman if there was anyone left who condemned her… “no one, sir.” This is God’s immense grace!
Then Jesus turns to the truth of scripture with these words: “Neither do I condemn you. Go now and leave your life of sin.” Grace…neither do I condemn you, and truth…leave your life of sin. Jesus extends a call to repentance in this story. His very first sermon was a call to repentance (Matt. 4:17). Jesus did not hide the truth, but he elevated the truth to a greater degree for the holy life. Jesus did not exclude grace, but he embraced sinners and called them to new life.
Grace and truth. To have one without the other is destructive and divisive. Perhaps this is where the Presbyterian Church USA has failed. We are willing to offer grace without truth on one side, and truth without grace on the other. We have ignored the truth of scripture, but we have also failed to embrace those whom God loves. We have forgotten to seek the goal of becoming like Jesus Christ who was and is filled with grace and truth (John 1:14), and furthermore, from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace (John 1:16). “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17). I believe we are all called to live by God’s grace and truth. This is what leads us to a holy life. The Bible offers us the means to truth and holy living. The Bible also shows us the grace given us to love God and one another and to enable us to live by God’s truth. Grace does not call one to compromise the truth, but the truth does not communicate without grace. “Grace without truth pampers, confuses, and even deceives. Truth without grace cuts, wounds, and destroys.” We are called to both truth and grace. Therefore we cannot use truth to wound others, nor can we use grace in such a way that deceives.
This is what I have learned through W.P. Campbell. It is what I pray for you and for myself and for the Church…grace and truth. I am reminded of two encouraging words from the apostle Paul: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16) and “Grace be with you” (Col. 4:18). Ω

Easter Sermon 2

Sermon # 1039
May 1, 2011
John 20:19-31
Dr. Ed Pettus

“Post Resurrection”

I discovered in some reading this week that this Sunday has sometimes been called Low Sunday. The Sunday following Easter traditionally has the lowest attendance and in many churches the minister takes this Sunday off to recuperate from the busy Easter festivities. Easter is such a huge day, lots of people, extra music, new dresses, Easter egg hunts, and then, when it’s all over there is the feel that the party is over. The good news is that the party is just getting started! This is not Low Sunday; this is the second Sunday of Easter. This is a continuation of what we started last Sunday! Christ is risen, his body is not in the tomb, and the joyous celebration rolls on.

We are a post-resurrection people. Every Sunday is a resurrection celebration in the sense that the very reason we are meeting on Sunday instead of Saturday is because we celebrate the resurrection on this day, the Lord’s day. Last Sunday we celebrated the great testimony of Christ’s resurrection from the tomb. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the testimony the women brought back from the tomb. It is the testimony the disciples would tell Thomas. This Sunday we continue with the story, the on-going story of resurrection.

In John’s gospel Mary Magdalene had come to the tomb and found that Jesus’ body was no longer there. Mary ran back from the tomb to tell Peter and John that Jesus was gone and they in turn ran back to the tomb to see and when they saw for themselves they returned to their homes. Mary was weeping outside the tomb and looked inside to see. Two angels appeared and asked her why she was weeping – she told them that someone had taken Jesus. She turned around and Jesus appeared to her, but she did not realize it is him. He asked her why she was weeping and during their conversation he speaks her name and she recognizes him. She goes back to the disciples and tells them what had happened.

That evening the disciples gathered together. There is no explanation for their meeting, only that they locked themselves in for fear of the Jews. They probably feared that the Jews might take action against them as well. It is Sunday evening and the disciples are afraid, Mary’s words are still fresh in their ears: “I have seen the Lord.” What do they make of that? What is going on? So they lock the doors and the story just abruptly states: “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’” (John 20:19). “Peace be with you.” It is a statement Jesus says three times, peace be with you. They are afraid and only God’s peace could relieve their fears.

Thomas was not among them that night, so they give their testimony to Thomas when they see him again, that Jesus had appeared to them. It is a week later when Thomas is with the disciples that Jesus appears again and Thomas is able to see for himself that Jesus is alive.

Thomas is the “seeing is believing” disciple. He was skeptical of the testimony that the disciples gave. He could not believe this wild story. He needed to touch and see and smell and hear before he would believe. We live in a world and culture that approaches Jesus Christ with great skepticism. Our culture lives without belief because Jesus’ presence today cannot be proven through sensory perceptions. Jesus is thus largely dismissed because he does not fit any objective criteria for existence. Every time around Easter several programs appear on television asking if Jesus was real or who Jesus was or something about Jesus that seeks to refute the biblical narrative.

One of the joyous celebrations of Easter that continues for us is in telling the story. We get to celebrate Easter, not just on Sundays, but with every opportunity to give testimony about Jesus. That is what we have – the testimony – given to us that we may come to believe. Jesus does not fit any provable theory or method. Jesus confounds the wise. "The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile," says Paul in 1 Corinthians (3:20). We run a great risk when we trust in only what we can see and prove. Yet, that is how we live because we think that is wise. It is the way we have learned to reason and think about truth. The gospel of John affirms that life does not begin with what we can touch and see and prove, but with the testimony of faith. John writes: “But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (20:31).

The world says the Bible is ancient, out of step with the modern world, it has no relevance for living today. The very opposite is our testimony. We begin with the gospel. The world is being called to live up to the standards of the gospel of Christ. What often happens is that the gospel (and by “gospel” I mean the whole of scripture) the gospel is reinterpreted to conform with the world rather than the world conforming to the commandments of Christ.

There is a great battle on going about science and religion, usually fleshed out in the evolution and creation discussion. Barbara Brown Taylor notes the difference between how science and religion know things:
“While both rely on reason and experience, the most obvious difference is that science depends on observation while religion depends on revelation. You ‘go get’ the first kind of knowledge. The second kind is ‘given’ to you” (The Luminous Web, 81).

We go get observations. Revelation is given to us! Take Thomas as an example. It seems that Thomas would not receive that which was given to him - revelation, he could not accept it, could not believe the testimony of those who had seen already. All Thomas could do was “go get” the observations for himself. He had to see and feel the nail scars and the wound in Jesus’ side.
The good news for Thomas, and for us, is that Jesus accepts Thomas’ need to see and feel for himself. Jesus does not reject him for his need to see. Jesus seems to say, “You can come to me seeing or not seeing, just come.” Jesus receives us whether we think like modern day scientists or not. But Jesus does say this to Thomas: “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe" (John 20:29).

Thomas had the tendency to put proof ahead of faith. Thomas did not trust the witness of the other disciples when they told him they had seen the Lord. But we cannot blame him too much. Jesus had been crucified, dead, and buried. How quickly would we have believed anyone who claimed to have seen Jesus alive after that? That is why the celebration of Easter goes on…because the news is so stunning and remarkable that is takes us a life time to celebrate!

We celebrate post resurrection the grand good news that he is risen. Because he is lives we can face tomorrow. Because he lives, we live. We live in him. It is the revelation that goes beyond explanation, it goes beyond scientific understanding, and it goes beyond our ability to control. The Spirit moves in uncalculated, unpredictable ways. The wind of God blows in mysterious ways. There is no routine manner to the breath of God.

That is one thing the disciples quickly learned after the resurrection of Jesus. God works in ways that defy understanding. I wonder how much more of Thomas’ life would depend upon touching and seeing first hand. Would he go on in his life to trust more in the testimony of others? Would he expect others to trust his testimony? That is what we are called to do, trust in this testimony, this word we call the word of God. Jesus calls us to abandon ourselves to this message of resurrection, we need not rely on proof through archeological data. We do not have to prove Jesus was dead and is now alive. Our life is not based upon our ability to prove these things; it is based on the testimony of several witnesses who tell us:
“I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18).
“The Lord has risen indeed” (Luke 24:34).

John concludes today’s gospel reading with these words, “But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name” (20:31). The testimony is written so that we might believe and through believing we may have life. A central focus of the gospel of John is life!

In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. (1:4)
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (3:16)
The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. (4.14)
I am the bread of life. (6.48)
I have come that they may have life. (10.10)
I am the way, and the truth, and the life. (14.6)

The testimony of John’s gospel is that life comes through believing and John wrote these words of testimony for the sake of faith, “that you may come to believe”.

Paul indeed had it right: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-- what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Such discernment comes through revelation, through the word of God, through God’s gift and through believing our testimony of scripture.
In 1 John 5:9-13 we read:
If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater; for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son. 10Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son. 11And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
This is our post resurrection testimony!
“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe."
Amen.

Easter Sermon

Sermon # 1038
April 24, 2011
Mark 16:1-8
Dr. Ed Pettus

“He Has Been Raised!”
He has been raised! With those words the world was changed. At the time those words probably brought mixed feelings and thoughts of fear and wonder, awe and excitement, surprise and confusion. It would be difficult to imagine – one day Jesus is dead and laid in a borrowed tomb and on the third day his body is gone. He has been raised! Good news.

Today we celebrate and give thanks for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Imagine what it must have been like to expect death but receive life. Imagine what it must have been like to expect a body and receive a message… “he has been raised, he is not here”. The women had come to care for the body of Jesus because, to them, it still mattered. It was important that Jesus receive the burial preparation that could not be given before his placement in the tomb. The Sabbath was over now and they believed it important that proper respect and proper care be given to the dead. So they came to the tomb, but he was gone. “Look, there is the place they laid him”. It was a bare place, no body, only a young man dressed in white telling the women: “he is not here”.

Marks says that terror and amazement seized the women. I imagine we too would have been seized by the same feelings. Terror is not our emotion today as we celebrate the empty tomb. Hopefully we are still amazed. Hopefully the empty tomb leaves us so amazed that, in one respect, we become like those women who left the tomb speechless. That is one of the wonders of this story – the resurrection at first leaves us speechless, because words, mere words cannot do it justice. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is too big for words and all we are left with is the amazement and terror of the empty tomb.

When words are not enough we use symbols. The symbol of the empty tomb says more than words are able. The symbol of the empty cross says more than we can. Today we remember Jesus through the symbols of bread and wine (grape juice!), symbols which say something more to us than words might.

Today we will hear music to help us listen to the message. We will tell the story again in song. Music stirs us to hear in a different way. But there are many ways to hear and see: in music, in words, in springtime, in symbols, in Mark’s testimony of the women at the tomb, even in the women’s silence there is testimony.

Out of the silence we may hear God. From our symbols we might see anew. Our amazement this Easter morning might renew our faith. He is risen; he is not in the tomb and because he has been raised we are alive to God. Jesus lives and because he lives we live to God! Paul writes that all we have to do is confess and believe:

…if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved (Romans 10:9-10).

Today we gather around the table to be nurtured for new life in Christ. Today we listen for God’s word to us in scripture, in preaching, in the sacrament, and in song. It is a great day, a joyous day, an exciting day to celebrate Christ raised from the dead, Christ living today, and to delight in the glad news of the gospel: “Christ is risen!” He is not in the tomb but God has raised him from the dead. May we always be amazed for this is our very life: Jesus Christ – the risen Lord. Amen.