tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-47300245898722897812024-03-13T12:46:18.193-07:00My Dog ZekeEd and Zeke (mostly Zeke) share thoughts about stuff.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.comBlogger55125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-48223576275833584162011-07-05T09:42:00.000-07:002011-07-05T09:43:48.180-07:00New BlogZeke is tired of blogging so I moved the blog here > http://revse28.wordpress.com/Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-1918628367841415502011-07-04T12:51:00.000-07:002011-07-04T12:52:36.979-07:00SermonSermon # 1047<br />July 3, 2011 <br />Psalm 119:105-112 <br />2 Timothy 3.10-4.5 (3.16)<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“Sola Scriptura”<br /><br /> In the reformed faith there are five teachings that emerged from the sixteenth century Reformation…what are called solas, that is, five “alone” principles: In Latin - Sola scriptura, scripture alone. This doctrine emphasizes that the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are our sole authority for faith and life. Faith alone teaches that we come to Jesus Christ only by faith. We accept the justification of God by faith. Grace alone, our salvation only comes by the grace of God, the unmerited favor of God. Solus Christus – through Christ alone, that Jesus Christ is the only mediator between God and us. Glory to God alone, all glory, honor and praise is due to God alone. I hope to preach on all these “alones” as time allows, and today we will start with scripture alone. <br /> These teachings come from the period of the Reformation. This is where the Protestant church emerged after a long protest against the one Roman Catholic Church. Prior to the Reformation, the only church in town was the Catholic Church. But the problem was that the one church was becoming more and more corrupted. In the sixteenth century certain leaders in the church began calling for reform. There was not necessarily one unified movement, but several movements throughout Europe, as Brett Baker writes: “The cry for reform for some was at times not uniform; some felt the most important thing to reform was the incumbents holding office in the church; others felt that the officer’s agenda should shift from secular matters to spiritual; others felt that it was the vitality that needed polishing to attract those who had left; and still other felt the heart of reform began with theology. Given our [lofty] consideration of the Reformation, we will say that there were four primary movements during the Reformation. Most historians would say that the starting gun of the Reformation was Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenburg, Germany. The second large body of commotion started in Switzerland by John Calvin in Geneva. The later large movement in Reformation centered not on an individual, but rather a group called the Anabaptists. Lastly, a fourth major movement in the Reformation was the counter attack (called the counter Reformation) mounted by the Catholic church in response to the success of the Reformers. These events encompass a period of roughly two and a half centuries during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. The term Protestant frequently is used to refer to anyone who favored the Reformation. [Although the earliest] proponents of the Reformation were referred to as Evangelicals.” (http://www.trinitykirk.org/sermons/series/30)<br /><br />That is a bit of the history, now let us look at Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is not to say that truth cannot be found anywhere other than scripture, nor that the scriptures are equally clear to all people, nor that teachings on the scriptures from the Church are not also helpful. What scripture alone does mean is that scripture is our final authority and rule for faith and life, for belief and practice. This does not mean that we take up the Bible with the attitude of bumper sticker theology that says, “The Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it!” But we are saying that the scriptures are our final authority and that they are infallible (that is, it is completely reliable). All other authorities, as valid as they may be, are subordinate to the Scriptures. We read in 2 Timothy:<br />“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it 15 and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the [person] of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:14-17 ESV).<br /><br />The reformers believed that the scriptures were sufficient for all we need to live in righteousness, faith, and salvation. Nothing lacking. The content is there and with it all authority. <br /><br />Why does this matter? In my opinion, the authority of scripture has come into question in the church. This is not everyone’s view, certainly, but if not in question, there are surely diverse views of the authority of scripture. With all the debate and commotion over amendments and topics in the PCUSA, I believe it all boils down to scripture and its authority and interpretation. One of the sad results of our current crisis is the realization of how little we know our scripture. We have known for many years that the church has been woefully illiterate in the scriptures, but in some ways that truth is becoming more evident. We might expect that a faith community that holds up a sacred text as its very authority would better know that text. For some, the battle that was once thought of as a battle against cultural influences has become the same battle within the church. <br />I remember an article written about eight years ago by Cal Thomas. The main point of the article was that the Church, rather than being attentive to the godly things, has become content with worldliness. Thomas quoted Alan Wolfe who writes, “Far from living in a world elsewhere, the faithful in the United States are remarkably like everyone else.” He goes on to say that American culture has triumphed! Some will look at that statement and say, “So? What’s wrong with American culture?” Well, nothing is wrong with American culture if we close our eyes and plug our ears and smile. Certainly there are many things great about the United States, and we will be celebrating those things this weekend, but the greatness of our country does not hide the problems we have. The greatness of this country does not overshadow the downward spiral of moral standards. <br /><br />One critique is that the Church has become less and less shaped by its own Scripture and more and more shaped by the surrounding culture. If the Church has become content with worldliness, it may be because we have lost something of our story. Some would say that we have lost a sense of the transcendent - that is, we have lost a sense of other worldliness, a sense of mystery and power beyond ourselves. The Bible becomes for us an antiquated, out of date document without power. So the Bible is used and understood as a document just like any other. As one author states, "people have little sense that Scripture is bigger than ourselves." We have lost our own story, falling for the culture’s line that we do not have anything of value to say or contribute. <br />Cal Thomas concluded his article with these words, “If Christians really want to see culture transformed…they need to begin with their own transformation.” He is not very far from the apostle Paul in Romans 12, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (v. 2, ESV). The church, each one of us, is called to transformation. That transformation is helped by our learning and knowing and living the inspired or “God-breathed” word. <br /><br />Wilfred Smith asks the question, "What is Scripture?" He says that Scripture is a religious phenomenon, not just a text. It is an encounter between community and text in such a way that the community understands itself to be in touch with God. Each time we open the Bible it is a happening, an event of significant importance. Of course that is not to say that every time we open the Bible we will be inspired or blessed with some miracle, but the Bible is not to be ignored as simple document to be studied like a textbook. The Scripture is like an open window to truth and goodness, it enables us to live in relationship with God and with one another; it brings us closer to our true selves. <br />A wonderful metaphor for scripture is a work of art. Scripture is much like music or poetry or a painting. When we listen to a great piece of music, it is not always the same with each hearing. Really good music brings different sensations to us each time we hear it. In classical music we even have favorite hearing by different conductors as they interpret Bach or Mozart with their own style and hearing. Or when we go to an art museum and look at a great piece of art we wonder what the lines mean in the painting but then someone says, "come look from over hear, they look totally different from this angle." <br />Scripture is a work of art. Each time we go to it we see something different, something new. It has density that is reflective of the density of life. In that sense, it is just like a great work of art. We sometimes hear the phrase, "a picture is worth a thousand words," but with the Scriptures – “a word is worth a thousand pictures!” <br /><br />God’s Word does have compelling power, not just in its inexhaustible nature, but because we believe that God speaks through these words. We trust that the Holy Spirit is at work in the books we use as our rule of faith and life. And yet we tend to treat the Bible as if it were not an encounter with God. The NIV translates 2 Timothy this way, "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."<br /><br /><br />The Scripture is God-breathed. This is the same theme as when God created Adam out of the dust and God breathed into his nostrils and gave him life. The Bible would be just another historical document, but it is more than that because God breathes life into and through it. Now I cannot explain how that happens and I do not pretend to understand it any more than I can explain how a work of art can move one person to tears and another to applaud, but through the Holy Spirit I trust the Bible to be truth, and in so doing, we can trust the Scripture to be a compelling power for life because it is God-breathed! It is a word with depth for life, with density for transformation and to ignore it is to rob it of that depth and power for life.<br />I remembered two times when I was most fascinated(?) by the lack of scripture knowledge in places where I would have expected tremendous knowledge. This is not to toot my own horn or say that I know any more than anyone else, but the first memory was from my conversion to the faith. I, immediately after accepting Christ’s into my life, began a diligent study of the Bible and not long after was asked to lead a Bible study for a small group of about fifteen college students. The problem was that most of those students had grown up in the church! They were supposed to know this stuff. I was nineteen years behind them as far as exposure to the Bible and yet they wanted to know what I had taken a few months to learn. <br />The second experience was more recent while I was attending classes on spiritual direction in Charleston with a group consisting of various faith traditions, but predominately Catholic. We would spend many hours reading and discussing the history and development of spirituality and I just kept saying, “Yes, that is Isaiah 54” or “this is from Galatians 2” and the other participants were amazed that all this stuff about spirituality could be in the Bible! So I became the resident Bible scholar among a group who had a lifetime of experience in the church but very little Bible knowledge. <br />This is my personal crisis with the discussion over ordination and abortion and other such topics within the PCUSA. I fully understand that there are lots of ways and views associated with the interpretation of scripture. But deep in my heart, or as one friend used to say, in the marrow of my bones I read and interpret the Bible in such a way that leads me to conflict with my denomination. <br /><br />All I really want to say this morning is we have a resource unlike any other that helps us to live as God intended. We have a God-breathed word that can set things right for us, that can teach us all things, and that can correct us when needed and train us in righteousness. Maybe the best way to transform our culture and church is to first be transformed ourselves, and a good place to start (or restart) is with our holy book. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-28137260249248250892011-06-27T10:44:00.000-07:002011-06-27T10:45:42.040-07:00SermonSermon # 1046<br />June 26, 2011 <br />Deuteronomy 6:1-9<br />Luke 10:24-37<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“The Shema”<br /><br /> <br />This week past week was our Camp week at Bluestone. I was a Bible leader, known as key leader at Bluestone. The Bible theme was the Shema originally from Deuteronomy and also quoted in the gospels. Shema is Hebrew for “hear”…Hear, O Israel…or as we altered it a bit at camp, Hear, O Bluestone! I had my two groups of campers learn it that way: Hear, O Bluestone, the lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Second: Love your neighbor as yourself.<br /><br />We called it the Jesus Creed. Something like we do with the Apostles’ Creed, it is a belief held by Jews, still today, and one that Jesus would have been taught from the time he was a child and one that he also taught others and he knew that all Jews would have known the Great Shema. This Creed is actually two Old Testament verses joined together. One from Deuteronomy and the second from Leviticus. Love God and love your neighbor. Shema – to hear, to listen and obey. When I gave the closing worship message, I talked to the campers about hearing and really listening. You might be sitting around at home and your mom says, “Pass the cheese whiz!” If you are really “shema-ing”, if you were really listening, then you would pass the cheese whiz. Shema – to listen and obey. Of course, most of the kids had never heard of cheese whiz.<br /><br />Sometimes we have what is called selective hearing. Most wives here know what I am talking about. For the campers I used the example of the counselor who says, “get up, it’s time for breakfast”, but we just lay there hoping breakfast will come to us. When the people of Israel heard the word SHEMA, they perked up their ears because they knew something important was coming. Shema, O Israel…and then the command would come. Love the Lord, love your neighbor, obey my commands, listen and obey.<br /><br />Selective hearing, sometimes we only hear what we want to hear. We have to tune our ears to God’s word in order to hear God. I can tune a guitar and my ear has become better over the many decades hearing the sound of each string. I have worked to tune my ears to “Shema”, to hear God speak a word…through learning the Bible, learning as much as I can about what God has said in the scriptures and our ears can become more and more tuned to what God wants us to do and who God wants us to be. A great place to start is with the Great Shema, LOVE GOD and LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR. <br /><br />Jesus said that all the commands are summed up in these two! In Luke’s gospel, when Jesus approves the lawyers response to the question of eternal life, the Shema is part of the summation given, Hear, O Israel, love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the lawyer rightly adds to the command, love your neighbor as yourself. Some suggest that all we need to do is love and that will take care of all the controversies and problems in our denomination and all our relationship issues. But this statement, this command, is not a license to do dismiss all the other commands we have, but it is a summation. The whole law is summed up in love, not excluded because of love. In love, all the commands are embraced and fulfilled. Jesus said in Matthew’s gospel that he did not come to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them, to bring them to completion and to fullness for our life (5:17). We know that we love God by following his commands (1 John 5:2). <br />The more scripture, the more of the Bible we know, the better our hearing becomes, the better able to hear and obey what God says. We tune our ears by being in the Bible, reading, memorizing, studying, praying, and learning. <br /><br /><br />What are we listening for? Commands, requests, love notes from God. Love the Lord your God with all your Heart, Soul, Mind, and Strength. Each day when we met for key leader time we would try to remember about the order of those words, heart, soul, mind and strength. I starting thinking about how the Hebrew language, the language of the Old Testament has no vowels. Did you know that? The Bible Hebrew had no vowels! That’s why the TV show Bible Hebrew Wheel of Fortune only lasted for one show, because no contestant could buy a vowel! Well, anyway, what we do to pronounce words that do not have vowels is put some in, so I thought about the words Heart – Soul – Mind – Strength - HSMST and I inserted some vowels and came up with HAS MOST Heart H a Soul s HAS – Mind M o Strength ST MOST …HaS MoST who has most as a believer in God? We do…has most. We have everything we could ever imagine, the most, has most. Laugh now, but you will now be able to remember Heart Soul Mind and STrength because you has most!! I know it’s kind of corny but I hope the kids will remember it a little better and longer if they can remember HaS MoST.<br /><br />God commands us to hear and obey the command to love God with all we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Why? Why would God command this? For one thing it is our greatest response to a love that has been given to us. God loved us first! We are simply responding to the love we have been given in God, through Jesus. The most important decision we can ever make is in how we respond to the Great Shema. Will we listen to and obey God’s command? This is the decision that affects more than just our life right here, but for eternity. We love God because God first loved us. You are loved by God, no matter what you have done in the past, God loves you. No matter how much you might think you are not worthy to be loved, God loves you. No matter how many times you have heard and not obeyed, God still loves you. God loves you. And because God loves you, all who love God love you too! It is because of this command to love God and to love neighbor. God loves us and all God wants is love in return. Hear, O Princeton, the lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Second: Love your neighbor as yourself.<br /><br />One commentator has said: "In an age when the word 'love' is greatly abused, it is important to remember that the primary component of biblical love is not affection but commitment. Warm feelings of gratitude may fill our consciousness as we consider all that God has done for us, but it is not warm feelings that Deuteronomy 6 demands of us but rather stubborn, unwavering commitment. Similarly, to love neighbor, including our enemies, does not mean that we must feel affection for them. To love the neighbor is to imitate God by taking their needs seriously." (Hare, Interpretation, 260)<br /><br />Love for God is total commitment to God. In Deuteronomy, Israel was about to step into a new situation, into a land that God had promised from the time they left Egypt. They were facing many choices and Moses laid it on the line for them. "God is one, love the Lord your God with all you have. Keep the commandments in your hearts. Recite them to your children. Talk about them. Bind them on your hand, fix them on your forehead, write them on your doorposts." To love God is to keep commandment, it is commitment in covenant and loyalty to our God. I may not “feel” good about what I do sometimes or what others may do, but in order to reflect God’s love for myself and for others, I, we are committed to them, committed to one another’s well being – even our enemies. <br /><br /><br />My hope for the campers is that they would all leave the mountain in love with God, loving their neighbors, and listening for what God has for them next! It is the same message for us this morning: Hear, O Princeton, the lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. Second: Love your neighbor as yourself.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-35175747005482101402011-06-23T07:56:00.000-07:002011-06-25T19:15:17.884-07:00SermonSermon # 1045<br />June 19, 2011 <br />Genesis 1:1-2:7<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />"The Breath of Life"<br /><br /> Last Sunday we celebrated Pentecost, the movement of the Spirit upon the disciples, the wind of God, the breath of God. John’s gospel, which we heard last Sunday, spoke of Jesus breathing on the disciples – an unusual description of a Pentecost event. Today we will also spend some time with the scriptures and the Spirit of God, beginning with the beginning!<br /> In the beginning...we read about the wind of God sweeping over the waters. The Bible begins with God and the wind – the Spirit of God. This is the wind that ushers in the first word spoken, "Let there be light." Some translations, like the KJV, translate the phrase, "The Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." The Hebrew word may also be translated breath so we might say that the breath of God was moving over the water. That is one of the more fascinating things about biblical languages, that various meanings or various English words can be used depending on the context of the story. Wind might seem more appropriate to some translators for the creation story. We all know that the wind sweeps across the ocean, across the waters. People use it all the time for sailing! Wind, Spirit, Breath, these are the possible words from the Hebrew Ruach. The word ruach can be seen in many places throughout the Old Testament.<br />Also in the creation story we read that Adam was created and given life, life that comes from the breath of God. Yet once again it is the Hebrew word that may be used for wind or spirit, so that God in-winded Adam or blew the Spirit into him. Any one of those words can be appropriate for the story…physically God started Adam breathing. Spiritually God gave Adam his Spirit, that unique quality of God’s presence. God gave Adam something unlike any other creature – the mysterious wind of God. <br />We can move ahead in the Bible to the time of Noah when God said in Gen 6:17: “For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die.” Those who had been given the breath of life from God also faced the consequence of sin when God took that gift away!<br />At the anointing of King David the spirit of God "came upon David in power." Again it is the Hebrew word ruach. 1 Sam 16:13: “Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward.” The mystery of God is perhaps most evident in the working of the Spirit. We have the breath that God gives, and yet there are also times when we receive the Holy Spirit anointing or some special manifestation of the Spirit in our lives or in our midst. <br /> In the New Testament it is the same situation with the Greek word. Jesus promised the coming of the Holy Spirit and Acts tells the story of the blowing of the mighty wind throughout the house where the apostles waited. Acts 2:2-4, “And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” How does one describe a story like this? The only way the narrator can express such an event is to call it a violent wind. <br />When Nicodemus met Jesus in the night, Jesus describes the Spirit in terms of wind: John 3:8, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” <br /><br /> <br />In both the Old and New Testament languages, the word for Spirit can be translated wind or breath. All three English words contain elements of life. <br />Breath is obvious, when we stop breathing we die. <br />Spirit is a term we use in a variety of ways. People who are said to have spirit are full of energy, spunk, full of life. In the church we know the Holy Spirit gives life and many other blessings and gifts. <br />Wind even testifies to life in creation. It demonstrates to us that the world is still spinning, that God's creation still lives and "breathes."<br /> <br />Since these words from biblical languages can be translated and understood in a variety of ways, we have this rich vitality to our understanding of God's Spirit. We can understand the Holy Spirit as the wind that blows where it will. It is capable of powerful things even destructive things, and also can be as gentle as a summer breeze. We know the Spirit as the breath of God that gives life to his creation and his people. We also know the Spirit as it compares to the old term Holy Ghost. We do not mean here the way many understand "ghost" today, as a scary, evil spirit in movies, but ghost in terms of a person in spirit. We do not refer to the Holy Spirit as an "it" but in personal terms – the Holy Spirit as person...the Holy Spirit as real, God's Spirit living in his people. I do not know anyone who has had an experience like that of the anointing of David or the pouring out of the Spirit like a rushing wind at Pentecost! The Spirit is free to come to us as he chooses, in a mighty wind, a gentle breeze, a deep sigh, or perhaps through everyday breath. It is the mystery of God, as Jesus says, "What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, 'You must be born from above.' The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:6-8).<br /><br />Rauch wind, spirit, breath we have no ruach on our own; breath is given moment by moment and when it is not given, we die. When God breathes, our weakness moves to strength and God gives life. Any time God breathes we are raised to new life. No one intrinsically possesses power for life and vitality. This breath, this wind, this spirit which God has given is a gift. It is a gift with each breath you take. It is a gift you cannot hold on to because it is continuously given. We could try to hold our breath, but it is eventually relinquished and given back to us. The breath of God is the gift of life! <br /> <br /> <br />1. Human persons have no possessing gift of life; it is only given by God.<br />2. The Spirit belongs to God's God-ness; it is in God’s character to give spirit/wind/breath which makes life possible.<br />3. When God's wind enlivens the body, we become a living nephesh – a soul, a self, a life. Nephesh, a Hebrew word, means we are a living organism.<br /><br />It is like the book of Acts states, Acts 17:24-25, “The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” The scriptures reveal that human existence is foundationally relational or covenantal. In relationship to whomever can “breathe” on us. Is there any other god who can breathe? Is there any other god who gives life through a relationship with us? No and no! There is no other like our God! <br /> The creation story also reflects this relational aspect of God’s nature. God created them male and female, for relationship. When I counsel with couples about to marry, I often speak of this relationship in marriage being a reflection of the covenantal relationship we have with God. Adam made in God’s image, the woman made from the bone of man, the two become one flesh, related through God’s created order and marriage is, at its best, a reflection of the covenant relationship we have with God and all of this is a gift, as mysterious as the Spirit, as wondrous as the wind, as close as a breath. <br /> <br />We can never really be too thankful for breathing, that is, until our breathing is affected by disease or other problems. I remember when I had the breath knocked out of me, usually during a football game, and the pain and brief fear that we cannot breathe. When that breath finally returns, we are so relieved and thankful to have breath - to have life.<br />It is the gift of life. A collision tries to knock the breath out of us, the world tries to take the wind from our sails, sin attempts to quench the spirit, there are forces at work which are trying to convince us that this is not a gift but just mother nature or chance or whatever. But it is the gift of God. A gift that was around at the beginning of creation, and has blown through the history of God's people, into the church and we know not where it will blow next. Genesis reveals the life God gives and the life God intends for us, in creation, in relatedness, created for community in the Spirit.<br />The wind is impossible to predict, we are unable to contain it. It is the wind of God that blows across our lives and moves us, and cools us, and excites us, and frightens us. It is the same Spirit that teaches us and speaks to us, even today. <br /> We may not think much about the wind, but when the wind picks up, we night think of God. From time to time when we become conscious of our breathing for whatever reason, we can remember God, and when the Spirit reminds us in small ways perhaps in a quiet voice, remember the Spirit of God. <br />A growing spiritual life comes to realize the extreme of the gift of life: life given in our breathing, life given in the wind and life given in the Holy Spirit. The question we may want to entertain is: "What shall we do with such a gift? What response will we make to the God who gives us the breath of life?" Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-85152468753740999252011-06-05T16:55:00.000-07:002011-06-05T16:56:50.607-07:00SermonSermon # 1044<br />June 5, 2011 <br />Acts 1:1-14<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“The Ascension”<br /> The gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus’ life on this earth – from the beginning, the story of his birth, until he was taken up to heaven, the ascension. Today’s reading begins the second of Luke’s writing, a continuation of the story that has certainly not ended with Jesus’ departure. After death, after resurrection, after ascension, there is more to the story. Our story continues because God’s story continues. Luke shares the story of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, a story that brings life to a new community first called “The Way” (Acts 9:2) and what we know today as the church. <br /><br /> Life goes on after the resurrection – this is the seventh Sunday in the Easter season. Next Sunday we celebrate Pentecost and the recognition of the Spirit working in the church just as Jesus worked among us when he was present in physical body. This is the journey, the way of God’s people – as Luke tells it, the acts of the church. Now Jesus has ascended, but before he floats up into the clouds, he gives them instruction to go to Jerusalem and wait there for the promise. The Holy Spirit will come. It is interesting how many times in this beginning of Acts that Luke mentions the Holy Spirit. The first time is in how Jesus instructed the disciples through the Holy Spirit. The second is in the reminder of how they would be baptized with the Holy Spirit. A third time – when they would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to become witnesses to the ends of the earth. Perhaps Luke is emphasizing a move from the physical presence of Jesus to the spiritual presence of God’s Spirit. <br /> The disciples have been with Jesus for three years. They have been through good times and terrible times. They have been stunned by his death and even more stunned by his resurrection. And now they have seen him taken into heaven. Rick Mixon says: “The good news for those left standing on the Judean hillside is that Jesus not only comes from God, he returns to God. This is the true scope of movement for followers of the Way – we come from God, we return to God. The challenge in the meantime is to keep our lives centered on God, rooted and grounded in God, allowing God to be the one in whom we ‘live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28), here and now, on this earth.” Luke demonstrates throughout the book of Acts that one way we keep our lives centered on God is through the power of the Holy Spirit. <br /><br /> I suspect the disciples are still stunned by the crucifixion and resurrection and really do not know yet what to do with themselves. They still cannot see what Jesus intended for them so they ask again about the restoration of the kingdom. But Jesus has more for them than they can begin to imagine. Jesus has more for us than we can begin to imagine. <br /> Just when they think they have Jesus back with them he ascends into heaven, into the clouds, out of sight. They are left standing there, looking up, waiting for something else. Reminds me of the air shows I have seen – you spend most of your time looking up, straining your neck. A plane flies by, does a fancy death loop, and disappears and we just keep looking up. We needed someone to appear and say, you can stop looking now. <br /> Jesus came upon the earth, lived, taught, preached, and called disciples to follow. These were simple people, people who would stand in the sun looking up to the sky without a clue as to what was going on. Jesus did not call the richest of people, the smartest, the most famous of this time, but he called fishermen, a tax collector, those who had every day jobs and responsibilities. But, he called a people who would change the world by the power of the Holy Spirit. People like you and me. People we might least expect to bring about the continuing story of God’s love and forgiveness. <br /> Jesus taught them enough. They may have been slow to understand, but they would eventually, they would understand, but only by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit would help them, empower them, and teach them again. They need not stand there looking up toward heaven, but instead continue on the Way, following Jesus still. <br /> As I studied this passage, I thought of those who were expecting Jesus to return back on May 21. In essence they were looking up toward heaven like the disciples who stood on the Judean hillside. But, the focus was not supposed to be toward heaven, into the clouds, even the disciples had to be reminded of that. A lot of people gave a lot of money to advertise that Jesus would return on May 21. They were looking to toward heaven instead of looking toward Jesus. What they forgot was the current presence of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit, in the Word of God, in the face of brothers and sisters in Christ. <br /><br /> At the end of this ascension scene, the disciples return to Jerusalem as they are told to do, and they continue in prayer. This is the beginning of their life as the church – the continuing life of prayer. They did three notable things: 1) they stayed together, 2) they prayed, 3) they waited. We don’t wait well. We used to have to wait for the oven to preheat and that was just fine, now we get impatient with the microwave. We used to spend an hour typing document on a manual typewriter, now we huff at a computer for taking 45 seconds to boot up. We are an instant culture. I think the most critical error of an instant society is instant grits. That is the perfect example of a world gone mad! It is worth the wait for the real old fashioned twenty minute grits. <br />The disciples had to wait, but they did not really want to, so they asked Jesus: “Lord, is this the time you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” They had heard about the kingdom. Jesus preached it, said, “Repent for the kingdom has come near!” The kingdom was one of Jesus’ favorite topics. But the disciples had waited and now they had waited through a crucifixion and resurrection and an event that left them looking into the sky in awe and wonder. How much longer would they have to wait for this kingdom? <br /> But that is not all, now they have to wait for the Spirit! Go to Jerusalem and wait there for the power to come and in that power you will be my witnesses. Waiting, praying, staying together – this was one of those times in the life of the faith community where wonder, confusion, and impatience ruled the day. It is not unlike our time, especially in the PCUSA. We have been in the awkward place of change; we wonder what will happen with change in our Book of Order. Will the ordination standards alter the nature of the church? Some say it will bring healing, others say further decline. Division marks our time and we grow impatient, confused, or perhaps fearful. This is a time to learn from our sacred text. Note three actions of the disciples: they stayed together, prayed, and waited. I am not suggesting an unlimited time to wait. The disciples did not have to wait too long for the power of God to come in the Holy Spirit. But while we wait, whatever the time frame, we are called to pray and listen and stick together as best we can. <br /> One of the things I like about this Acts 1 passage is verse 13. “When they had entered the city, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying, Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James”.<br />These are real people, people with names, specific people, not just a group of unknowns, but James, Andrew, Philip, Peter. I remember one of the Star Trek Next Generation episodes when a Klingon leader who was promised to one day return, did return and appeared to the character Worf. This klingon named Kahless told a story of a man he knew long ago who thought he could hold back the wind but was killed by the storm. Kahless was challenged to tell the name of the man. If you were really there you would know the name of the man. The name meant more to the story than just a general description. What was his name? In this Star Trek story, the name meant everything. How could this Kahless be the great warrior promised to return if he did not even know the name of the man? <br />The Bible often gives us the name, or names in this case, to bring more authority to the story. These are God’s people, much like us. They knew one another by name and we are a similar community of named people, named at birth, named in our baptism. We also wait and pray. We wait for the Spirit to move. We wait for Christ to return. We wait for God to speak. We wait for the coming kingdom. We wait, sometimes impatiently, we pray, sometimes confused. This is a part of the life of faith. We do not always see clearly. Our emotions get the best of us or we settle into our positions so deeply that we refuse to budge. I have been following the conversation over amendment 10-A on the internet and the division is so deeply apparent, so passionately expressed that there seems to be no hope for a unity of heart and mind. So many are advising that we stay together for a time, pray, and wait. <br /> I imagine this was not easy for the disciples who had stood on the hillside looking at the clouds wondering if Jesus was going to reappear. Where did he go? Why did he leave us here? I wonder if the disciples said or thought: do wonders ever cease with this guy? <br /> The scriptures are given to us to speak God’s word to our lives, to our hearts and minds. Let us let this passage speak – the message of a presence and a power in the Holy Spirit. Let this story enter our hearts and minds as a message of hope as we seek to stay together as a community of faith. Let this word from God open us to what God may have in prayer and patience. Let this testimony of life give us courage to stay together and wait and pray. That may not be enough for some because we grow impatient too easily in today’s world of instant grits. It may not sit well to entertain that God’s Spirit will soon empower us for something we did not expect. But the story is there for us. The story reveals and is revealing God’s story among us, for we are those same people on The Way, waiting together, praying together, hoping together for something better. Amen. <br /><br />*Thanks to Rick Mixon’s comments on this text from Feasting on the Word.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-76304940143812544102011-05-30T20:28:00.001-07:002011-05-30T20:32:07.987-07:00The Vintage BMW Gathering at Old Salem 2011<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_zctundssnE/TeRhHpCRlRI/AAAAAAAAAqU/_GLmomuQEv8/s1600/101_1000.JPG"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_zctundssnE/TeRhHpCRlRI/AAAAAAAAAqU/_GLmomuQEv8/s320/101_1000.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5612717819512853778" /></a><br />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!Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-59938058852573252552011-05-30T20:26:00.000-07:002011-05-30T20:27:53.708-07:00Newsletter - June/JulyFrom the Pastor’s Desk…<br /><br />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!Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-54049275304419294652011-05-30T20:25:00.001-07:002011-05-30T20:25:46.044-07:00SermonSermon # 1043<br />May 29, 2011 <br />Deuteronomy 8:1-20<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“Remembrance and Gratitude”<br /><br /> 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. <br /> 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).<br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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.” <br /><br /> 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. <br /><br /> 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. <br /><br /> 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. <br />We do not live by our power alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. <br />We do not live by our material wealth alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. <br />We do not live by our wits alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. <br />You get the message. <br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /> 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. <br /><br /> 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.<br /><br /><br /> Israel was reminded to practice a lifetime of gratitude and remembrance. <br />A lifetime of gratitude is the continuing discipline of memory - overcoming our amnesia. <br />A lifetime of gratitude is the continuing dependence on God - overcoming autonomy as a way of life. <br />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. <br /><br />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.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-20160115373466445442011-05-30T20:23:00.000-07:002011-05-30T20:24:57.643-07:00SermonSermon # 1042<br />May 22, 2011 <br />John 14.1-14<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /> <br /><br />"Finding Our Way"<br /><br />"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. <br />“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. <br /><br /> <br />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?”<br />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. <br /><br /><br />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. <br /><br /> <br />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. <br /><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br /> <br />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]<br /> Being Christian, and thus a disciple, means we are summoned to an exclusive attachment to the person of Jesus Christ. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br /> <br />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.” <br /><br />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).<br /><br />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. <br /><br /> <br />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. <br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-76483900951258342562011-05-15T18:20:00.000-07:002011-05-15T18:21:40.754-07:00SermonSermon # 1041<br />May 15, 2011 <br />Romans 12:1-21<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“An Appeal”<br /> <br />I appeal to you brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God…I beseech you…I entreat you…I urge you…<br />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. <br /><br /> So, when Paul says, <br />I. Present your bodies as a living sacrifice, he is saying:<br />“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. <br /> 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!<br /><br /> 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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />A negative command follows:<br />II. Do not be conformed to this world.<br />“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. <br /><br />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).<br /><br /> 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. <br /><br /> Paul helps us with that question as well when he says,<br />III. Be transformed by the renewing of your minds.<br />“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:<br />1) the ways in which we have learned to think affect how we read the Bible, <br />2) how we read the Bible affects how we imagine God, <br />3) how we imagine God affects how we live out the faith.<br />4) <br />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. <br /> 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. <br /><br />How can we transform our minds? Paul says this,<br />IV. Do not think too highly of yourself.<br />“Do not misrepresent yourselves” (The Message).<br />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.”<br /><br />Transforming the mind means humbling one’s self before God. We submit ourselves to God presence. <br /><br /> 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. <br /><br /> 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. <br /><br /> 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. <br />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. <br /><br />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. <br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br />Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-15038142117177422022011-05-10T07:00:00.000-07:002011-05-10T07:02:44.462-07:00SermonSermon # 1040<br />May 8, 2011 <br />Luke 24:13-35 <br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />"The Cost of Discipleship"<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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: <br />• It reveals the anxiety and confusion over crucifixion and resurrection. <br />• It opens the beauty of scripture as Jesus teaches how the Old Testament gives witness to himself. <br />• The disciples are themselves another witness to the story of the death and resurrection of Christ. <br />• 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). <br />• Jesus is the preacher and the one preached!<br />• One of my favorite phrases includes their “hearts burning” as Jesus taught them.<br />• There is the wonder of their eyes being opened at the table. <br />• 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!<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br />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.<br />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:<br />"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."<br />"We might lose everything too, Bob."<br />"It's different for you."<br />"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?"<br />"I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point."<br />"Could that point by any chance be the – the cross?"<br />"That's right. I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I'm not getting myself crucified."<br />"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."<br />"Well now, if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn't have a church, would we?"<br />Clarence said, "The question is, do you have a church?"<br /><br /> <br />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? <br />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? <br /><br />"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)<br /><br /><br />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).<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /><br />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!!! <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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."<br /><br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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!” <br /><br />What are we asked to “give up” to follow Jesus? The real answer is - everything. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-80677068148029527372011-05-01T17:10:00.000-07:002011-05-01T17:11:44.964-07:00Newsletter - May (Grace and Truth)From the pastor’s desk…<br /><br />“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 <em>Turning Controversy into Church Ministry.</em> 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. <br />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!<br />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. <br />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. <br />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). ΩEdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-66084234320728838802011-05-01T17:08:00.001-07:002011-05-01T17:08:51.689-07:00Easter Sermon 2Sermon # 1039<br />May 1, 2011 <br />John 20:19-31<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“Post Resurrection”<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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.<br /> <br />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.<br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br /> 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). <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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: <br />“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). <br /><br />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. <br /> 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).<br /><br />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! <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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: <br />“I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18).<br />“The Lord has risen indeed” (Luke 24:34).<br /> <br />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! <br /><br />In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. (1:4)<br />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)<br />The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. (4.14)<br />I am the bread of life. (6.48)<br />I have come that they may have life. (10.10)<br />I am the way, and the truth, and the life. (14.6)<br /><br />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”.<br /><br />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. <br />In 1 John 5:9-13 we read:<br />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.<br />This is our post resurrection testimony!<br />“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." <br />Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-22060511184299182422011-05-01T17:06:00.000-07:002011-05-01T17:07:42.360-07:00Easter SermonSermon # 1038<br />April 24, 2011 <br />Mark 16:1-8<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“He Has Been Raised!”<br />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. <br /><br />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”. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. <br /><br />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:<br /><br />…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).<br /><br />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.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-68147107214538327582011-04-17T20:48:00.000-07:002011-04-17T20:49:56.199-07:00SermonSermon # 1036<br />April 17, 2011 <br />Matthew 21:1-11<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />"Hosanna! Save Us!"<br /><br />Jesus begins, on what is now known as Palm Sunday, a unique journey into Jerusalem. Proclaimed a king by the chanting crowd, he rides on a donkey, a humble king, and a king who will not be crowned until the soldiers place a crown of thorns on his head. This Palm Sunday entrance moves us into the suffering of the King of kings, the Passion of Jesus Christ. Jesus enters Jerusalem to bring his message of the kingdom, and not only by the words he will speak, but by the very manner in which he arrives in the city.<br />Actually, it may not have been much of a scene, a few people putting their cloaks along the road and cutting down branches when the cloaks ran out. The Romans may not have thought much of it at the time, just a guy riding into town on a donkey. He draws something of a crowd, but nothing that will appear to get out of hand - nothing the Romans could not handle. After all, this was not the first person to ride into Jerusalem with an entourage. <br />It could not have been all that interesting from the point of view of those outside the faithful who praised Jesus. After all, he was not riding in on a fine steed sitting in a finely adorned saddle with jewels and other animals carrying his riches. He is just a guy on a donkey with a bunch of rag tag people putting down their cloaks and some branches. <br />On the other hand, it was at least a big enough event to get the town buzzing over who this guy was. “Who is this person?” Some probably wondered, "Who does this guy think he is?" <br />That question is just as important today, "who is this?" Who do we say Jesus is? Is Jesus a king? Is Jesus our king? And if Jesus is our king, do we live as if we believe it to be true? What does it mean to be a king? <br />We don't live with the concept of kingship, with a concept of royalty that warrants the red carpet treatment, or even the cloak and branch treatment. The closest we get to that is our fascination with the royal family in England or in other countries. For us, in the modern west, Jesus would have to come in as a President, or at least a presidential hopeful. The people in biblical times hoped he would bring some kind of new rule. They hoped his prophetic voice would build a new kingdom where the Romans would have no more power. So they shouted, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" <br />We hope for no less, we pray each Sunday, "thy kingdom come!" But we struggle with what the kingdom looks like. Many people so integrate their modern political views with Jesus that it is sometimes difficult to tell what the kingdom of God will look like. Some seek to bring the kingdom through established political parties or through social justice issues alone. Too often we are as narrow in our vision for the kingdom of God as those who thought Jesus would overthrow Roman rule. We limit our view rather than opening ourselves to the radical message of the gospel. We are not much different than those who walked with Jesus on the day that he rode into Jerusalem.<br />So, who is Jesus? It was the question of the day as Jesus rode in with cloaks and branches marking the way. We know something of his kingship from our look at the scriptures, even from this short story of Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem.<br /><br />It is, according to Matthew, a fulfillment of prophecy, Zechariah 9:9, "Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." They shout, "Hosanna to the Son of David!" "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!" "Hosanna in the highest!"<br />The are proclaiming in those words, “Hail to the king.” Hosanna originally meant "O save us!" Like many words, hosanna takes on new meaning through time and becomes a cry of praise. Praise to the king. Except they did not say "king," they said, "Son of David, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord." And in verse eleven they say that Jesus is a prophet from Nazareth. So Matthew has to help us see that Jesus is the one Zechariah spoke of, the king who comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey.<br />Who is this? He doesn't come riding a white horse with sword in hand. Who do we say Jesus is? Palm branches remind us that those who followed him on that day believed him to be a king. We have the benefit of reading other scripture that proclaims Jesus the King of kings and Lord of lords. <br />How would we answer the question? Who is this? What do we tell others about this Jesus? My most vivid image of a king is King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table who would give their lives for the king. I remember movies that depicted the loyalty and obedience of those who fought for the king and gave their lives in his service. But Jesus is not like any other king for he comes to Jerusalem in humility.<br />Jesus is the king who comes to Jerusalem in humility knowing that he will suffer and die. He will suffer and die for us. The king gives his life for the subjects, so that we might be saved. It is not at all like the image I remember of the Knights of the Round Table who would give their lives for the king, but here, the king is giving his life so that we might live. "Hosanna!" Hosanna to this king who brings salvation to us through his suffering and death on the cross. This ride into Jerusalem marks the beginning of his final week before the cross. Yes, he is the king, but on Friday he will be crowned with thorns, nailed to a cross, and placed in a tomb. <br /> Who is this? This is the king who saves us, hosanna. This is the king who is willing to give his life for us. This is the king who seeks a relationship with his people, not just a relationship of exalted king and humble servants, but one of a humble king who gives of himself that we might be saved. The king suffers for us. Jesus rode into Jerusalem knowing he would suffer and die. He told the disciples this would happen. He knew, and he still rode in, humble, obedient. <br /><br /> The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, while imprisoned by Hitler's regime, said: “God allows himself to be edged out of the world and onto the cross and that is the way, the only way, in which God can be with us and help us...Only a suffering God can help.” <br /><br />This is how Jesus comes, as the One willing to suffer for us. Our tendency is to resist the humbled way that leads to suffering – but Jesus embraced it. It is what enables Jesus to embrace us and our suffering and in turn we are able to embrace his suffering. As Paul writes: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3:10-11). <br /><br />Jesus rides into our lives, humble and seeking to save. Jesus rides into our church, humble and seeking those who would follow. What will he find? Praise? Questions of who he is? Will he find disciples? Admirers? Will he find a humble people? A people shouting, “Hosanna! Save us!”?<br /><br /><br />Jesus is our king because he has been faithful even unto death. This week we look to that death, the news that is painful and hard to look upon. But we must have death before resurrection. We must have Good Friday before there can be an Easter Sunday. Jesus rides into Jerusalem to signify that the suffering servant, the humble king is willing to give his life for us. This week is the most important week of our lives. This week, these final days in Jesus’ life, we reflect and learn more about this king who lived in fidelity, obedience, and love as our king. Who is this? This is Jesus Christ to whom we shout with those along the road: “Hosanna! Save us!” Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-38161946226147372902011-04-16T19:53:00.001-07:002011-05-01T17:10:12.639-07:00Newsletter - April (Amendment 10-A)The following was my latest article for our church newsletter:<br /><br />From the Pastor’s Desk…<br /> Our denomination (PCUSA) is currently voting throughout the Presbyteries of the United States. The PCUSA consists of 173 Presbyteries and we are a part of the Presbytery of West Virginia. We are voting on several changes to our constitution; the two primary issues deciding on ordination standards for Ministers, Elders, and Deacons, and the other change deals with our form of government section of the Book of Order. I realize that these issues do not necessarily affect church members directly and the concern over them may be more important to some than others. But, I think these issues do matter to everyone. The hot button topic revolves around allowing the ordination of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) persons to offices in the church. There are many complex factors playing into this issue, not the least being the authority and interpretation of scripture. The PCUSA has debated this particular issue since 1978 and this will be our sixth time voting on changing the standard. The current standard holds all persons to particular standards of conduct in singleness or in marriage between a man and a woman. Here is the current Book of Order reference:<br /> G-6.0106b “b. Those who are called to office in the church are to lead a life in obedience to Scripture and in conformity to the historic confessional standards of the church. Among these standards is the requirement to live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman (W-4.9001), or chastity in singleness. Persons refusing to repent of any self-acknowledged practice which the confessions call sin shall not be ordained and/or installed as deacons, elders, or ministers of the Word and Sacrament. <br />If the denomination votes to change the standard, the Book of Order will read:<br />Standards for ordained service reflect the church’s desire to submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life (G-1.0000). The governing body responsible for ordination and/or installation (G.14.0240; G-14.0450) shall examine each candidate’s calling, gifts, preparation, and suitability for the responsibilities of office. The examination shall include, but not be limited to, a determination of the candidate’s ability and commitment to fulfill all requirements as expressed in the constitutional questions for ordination and installation (W-4.4003). Governing bodies shall be guided by Scripture and the confessions in applying standards to individual candidates.”<br /> Those who advocate keeping the standards we currently have appeal to scripture as traditionally interpreted as its standard. LGBT advocates are seeking participation in offices for the sake of justice and through a different interpretation of scripture. Of course, this simplifies the two sides greatly, but my point here is not to present both sides (that would take much more room than the newsletter gives) as much as to demonstrate that there is great division in the PCUSA. Even if the change is approved, such an outcome would be divisive as one side says the church will be healed while the other side says it will divide us even more, perhaps leading many conservatives from the denomination. <br /> I voted, in our Presbytery meeting March 1, to keep the standards we currently have in the Book Order. The Presbytery voted 93-56 in favor of changing the standards. While I have great concern for people on both sides of the issue, I personally cannot set aside my biblical convictions, but I pray for all that we may listen to God’s word and the leading of the Holy Spirit as we seek to discern what God is calling us to do and to be. If the ordination standard is changed it will take effect in the PCUSA July 11, 2011. The session will be studying various positions and responses to this issue in the next three months. If you are interested in seeing the material we will be studying, please email me at edhpettus@gmail.com. Let us remember to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) and “let the peace of Christ rule in our hearts” (Col. 3:15). ΩEdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-84579354131480497282011-03-29T14:54:00.000-07:002011-03-29T14:56:42.187-07:00SermonSermon # 1034<br />March 27, 2011 <br />Exodus 17:1-7<br />John 4:5-15<br />Dr. Ed Pettus <br /> <br />“A Thirst for Living Water”<br /><br />Israel spent a lot of time in the proverbial middle of nowhere. Forty years in the wilderness following Moses – following God. The wilderness is a place of threat because the wilderness does not supply the needs for life. The wilderness has no food, no shelter, and in the case of Exodus 17, no water. No water means death to Israel. No water means they have risked everything following Moses out of Egypt. The wilderness is a place of trust where Israel learns to trust God for what they need, but Israel is slow in learning that trust and they question God. <br />Our text today comes to us during the season of Lent. Lent is a time to reflect on our own wilderness, a wilderness of sin, a wilderness of social and cultural change, a wilderness wherein we, like Israel, may learn to trust God for our life. God has given us water for life, water to sustain us physically and water that quenches all our thirsts in the wilderness of life. Our journey begins with baptism, a journey through the water, just as Israel’s journey began through the waters of the sea. Sometimes our journey leads us to places without water, without resources, without trust. <br />Our life text intersects with other texts. Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at a well, a place to gather water for life, but Jesus offers her a new kind of water – one she desires so that she will never thirst again. Her thirst runs deep like that of the Israelites in the wilderness, but her thirst is for more than water from a well, but water from a Savior. <br /><br />I. We thirst for the water God supplies, water for our physical and spiritual well-being.<br />Exodus 17 presents a story of lack. There is no water to drink and Israel complains: Where will they get water? They complain to Moses, “Give us water to drink.” I guess they thought Moses knew where a well was located. Perhaps they are asking Moses because he stands between them and God. Perhaps they are asking God for water. Moses asks them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” <br /> It seems like a legitimate request. They are thirsty and they will die without water. Walter Brueggemann writes: “The focus is upon their deep need and upon the way is which the deepest question of faith is connected to the deepest material reality of life” (Inscribing the Text p.137). There is a connection between the material and the spiritual that cannot be severed. The lack of water to drink raises questions of God’s presence. Moses even names the places of Israel’s question of God. He names Massah meaning “test,” and Meribah meaning “find fault.” They lacked water to drink and so they asked: “Is God among us or not?” The absence of water triggered the question of God’s presence. They test God. They find fault with God. They question God’s presence.<br /><br /> Is not that the way it goes with us? I was thinking about the latest natural disaster and the problems of water shortage in Japan. There is always a shortage of water with a natural disaster whether it is drinking water or water to cool a nuclear reactor, water is a key element for life. On occasion we might have a water pipe break and we are told that we should boil our water, but imagine if the water just stopped and all the shelves at the grocery store were empty. When we lack what we need or even what we want, sometimes we question God. We know, as well as Israel knows, that our physical well-being is tied to God’s presence. Without God we will have nothing. With God, we have all we need.<br /> So God tells Moses to take some elders with him and to strike a rock with his staff and water will come out so that the people will be able to drink. God provides them what they need to survive. God provides for us what we need even when the wilderness threatens us with thirst or even death. <br /><br />II. We thirst for living water, the water Christ gives that enables us to never thirst again.<br /><br />In another wilderness story Jesus meets a woman at a well and he asks her for water to drink. Jesus is thirsty. She is amazed that a Jew would speak to her, a Samaritan woman – no Jew would speak to the Samaritans because they believed them to be impure. Jesus quickly turns the conversation around and tells the woman - ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water’ (John 4:10). <br />Now the physical need for water is connected with the spiritual need for living water. Water becomes the metaphor for new life in Christ, as Jesus says, “a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” Good news has come in the living water, just as good news came for Israel when Moses struck the rock. Water for which we thirst has become the symbol for new life in Christ and the power of God’s Spirit. God’s provision for our thirst is now the sign of life with God in Christ. And the waters of baptism connect us with the God who gives us water for drinking and living water for new life. All our physical and spiritual needs are met and we will never thirst again. <br /><br />III. We thirst for the living God, Psalm 42:1-2; 63:1-8.<br />Two other texts add to our word from the Lord: First is Psalm 42:1-2 – “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.” The true thirst is not for a drink of water, but in the thirst of our soul. The promise is that God will give us the living water that quenches our thirst for God – living water that quenches our thirst. Israel thirsted for water but their thirst would never be satisfied until they tasted of God – trusted in God. <br />Another Psalm, Psalm 63:1-8 says, “O God, you are my God, I seek you, my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; I will lift up my hands and call on your name. My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast, and my mouth praises you with joyful lips when I think of you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.” <br /> Our thirst for God is like thirsting in a dry and weary land, like a people wandering the wilderness in search of water and like the Samaritan woman who comes to well to get water that sustains life. Our souls are parched and the living water is the only water that can quench our thirst. We look elsewhere – to the world, to work, to entertainment, to riches, we look in all kinds of places to find satisfaction, but none will satisfy. Remember the Rolling Stones song, “I can’t get no satisfaction?” The reason the Rolling Stones could get no satisfaction was because they were looking in all the wrong places. All of our thirsts and hungers and yearnings and desires are, at root, a thirst for God! But we will go everywhere else, we will look to other sources to try and satisfy that thirst…until…until we trust in God. We will look in all the wrong places to quench our thirst until we come to see that God is truly with us and that God is truly giving us living water in Jesus Christ. <br />IV. Lent is a time to spend in the wilderness opening awareness of our thirsts. <br /><br />The season of Lent is a perfect time for us to seek the One who satisfies. Through the waters of baptism we are called into the wilderness of Lent. Just as Jesus was called out of the Jordan after his baptism into the wilderness, so we are called from the waters to trust in God – to trust that God will give us abundant water to drink and abundant living water to satisfy. <br /> But, we also hear these words from the prophet Isaiah: Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant…Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.<br /> This is the call for our practice of Lent – Come to the waters; come to the source; come drink and eat; come to God. Let us forsake wickedness and return to the Lord. Let us recognize that our thirst, even our thirst for water, is a thirst for God – a thirst for the living water of Jesus Christ. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-73120886597442400902011-03-22T16:29:00.000-07:002011-03-22T16:30:38.144-07:00SermonSermon # 1033<br />March 20, 2011 <br />1 Peter 3:18-22<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“The New Reality in Our Baptism”<br /><br /> Lent is perhaps the most difficult of church seasons. Granted, there is no shopping to do, no gifts to purchase, no decorations, no cards, no family gatherings like Christmas brings, no big meals to prepare, so in one respect maybe it is not too hard on us. But Lent is difficult for those who take seriously the disciplines of self-reflection, self-examination, repentance and humility. No one gets festive about that!<br /><br /> When we are called to look at our selves, to reflect on our lives, we fear what we might see. It is easier to continue our self-deception than to engage in self-examination. But Lent calls us to examination. This is the message of Lent: “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing” ~ Joel 2:12-13. <br /><br />We return to God through examination, fasting, weeping, and mourning – because we see our sinfulness. Our hearts break. But what we come to realize more deeply is the power of God to forgive our sin and to cleanse us of that sin. It is the same power that we know through our baptism. In our baptism we have experienced the forgiveness of sin, the washing away of all that would break our hearts, and the new life and new reality we have in Christ. <br /><br /> The scripture readings for today relate to baptism. The Old Testament reading reminds us of the saving of Noah and those with him, through the waters of the flood. Noah and his family were saved through the waters just as the waters of baptism symbolized our salvation. The Epistle lesson, 1 Peter 3, is something of an odd passage, parts of which we are not sure how to interpret. The overall context of the passage deals with unjust suffering. <br /><br />Verses 18-22 use Jesus Christ as an example of one who suffered. The passage links the sufferings of Christians to the suffering of Christ through our baptism. In our baptism we share in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ. We are also, in our baptism, linked to Noah and the flood, in the gospels, to Jesus in the Jordan, and to Christians everywhere who suffer – because we have all passed through the waters.<br /><br /> Peter, I imagine, intended to comfort the suffering Christians of his day with these words that connect believers to Jesus. We are unfamiliar with the suffering they endured, with persecution and the threat of death. But what if we took this passage as a comfort in the discomfort of Lent, the discomfort of examining our hearts and having sin rear its ugly head? That may entail more suffering for some, but we won’t name names! This passage helps us participate in Lenten disciplines in two ways: <br /><br />1. It reminds us that our hope lies in remembering the suffering servant, Jesus Christ, <br /><br />2. It reminds us that in our baptism, we may know the will of God.<br /><br /> Let us look first at the suffering servant. Jesus died on the cross because of our sin. It was not his fault! Not his crime! Instead, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5.6). While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5.8)! But it does not end there! Secondly, Jesus is made alive in the spirit. That is, he is raised from the dead. Then, Peter says Jesus journeyed to the prisoners to preach, apparently to those who did not pay much attention to Noah when he gave warning that a flood was coming! This is the part of the text that scholars debate. <br /><br /> Peter draws a comparison between Jesus and Noah, between the past salvation of Noah and the present salvation in Christ. The link is with us, in our baptism. The analogy here is not just a comparison of water, the waters of the flood and the waters of baptism, it is seeing the comparison of salvation for Noah and his family and the salvation of Christians symbolized through baptism. The passage accentuates how baptism moves us from one reality into another. <br /><br />Noah’s family moved from one world, stained with sin, to a new world that afforded Noah and his family a new beginning for humanity – from an old tired reality to a fresh new reality. Noah floated through the waters to a new life. So too do we move in our baptism from one world into another, from the sin filled world into a new creation given through the resurrection power of God. As one commentator says:<br />“Entering this new world through baptism alters the believer, for it applies the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection to us, which results in spiritual transformation. In other words, we see the world differently in baptism – with a clear conscience or to use a biblical metaphor, we regard the world with a transformed mind – because we have, in fact, entered a different world of which the church is the first emerging sign” (24, Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary).<br /><br /><br />Lent is a time to recognize that in our baptism we have entered into a new world and the benefits of Christ’s death and resurrection result in our spiritual transformation. That is the good news of Lent, when we see the bad news of our sin we know that in our baptism we are washed clean. Lent, while it is a time to reflect on our lives and repent, is a time to also reflect on the reality of our baptism. Lent is a time to decide if we truly believe what our baptism means for us. <br /><br /> If you have seen the movie “The Matrix”, it is something of a science fiction thriller where the main character, Neo, begins to see that there are two realities in his reality. Neo is eventually faced with a decision. Is the reality he has known from birth his true reality or is it another reality he has just discovered? He must decide between "false reality" and "true reality." When he makes that decision, he is transformed and brought into a new community, a new reality.<br /><br />The season of Lent may become a time for each of us to decide what reality is false and what reality is true. We certainly have options – the way of the world or the way of the kingdom, the way of death or the way of life. Our baptism calls us throughout our lives to make a decision. Do we believe the kingdom of God is at hand? Do we believe the kingdom of this world is our true reality? <br />In our baptism we are called to choose between life and death, between the ways of the world and the ways of God’s kingdom. In our baptism we celebrate a covenant faith. The covenant and the faith are gifts from God. The salvation we come to know through our baptism is not our own work, but the work of God in Jesus Christ. That is why Peter says that our baptism saves us “through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” God brings us through the waters, just as God brought Noah through the waters. It is the will of God for us to know this salvation in Jesus Christ.<br />The power in our baptism is God’s power at work to bring us to understand the reality of Christ’s suffering for sins once and for all. <br /><br />The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to show us the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection fleshed out in our dying and being raised to new life in Him. <br /><br />The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to help us examine our lives and our hearts so that we may return to God “with all our heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; tear our hearts and not our clothing. Return to the Lord, our God.” <br /><br />The power of our baptism is God’s power at work to reveal the good news revealed trough the prophet Joel, “for God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.” <br /><br />The power in our baptism is God’s power at work to reveal that the kingdoms of this world, the ones we can see, are false realities. God’s kingdom is the only true reality. <br /><br />The power in our baptism is coming alive to us throughout our lives. <br /><br />Baptism is not revealed only once at the actual moment of baptism, but our baptism constantly calls us back to God to reveal its meaning for our lives. Whether we are baptized as infants or adults does not matter because what we know at the time is not the criteria for an effective baptism. What matters in our baptism is God’s power! Our baptism calls us to realize whose we are, like Woody in the movie “Toy Story”. Woody is a toy that belongs to Andy, a young boy with a room full of toys. Woody is always able to look on the bottom of his boot and see the name “Andy”. He knows to whom he belongs. We too have a name marked through our baptism that tells us to whom we belong. And the constant call in our lives, in Lent and any season is a call to discover and rediscover the meaning of our baptism.<br /><br /><br />We never stop learning about and growing into our baptism. I remember a conversation with someone who was baptized early in life and had just realized, in a significant way at age 40, what that baptism meant. It does not matter if we are baptized as infants or adults – we are always learning the significance of this sacrament.<br /><br /><br />During Lent, we are called to reflect on our sinful lives and to repent. We are also called to remember that we are a baptized people, forgiven, washed, being exposed to a new reality, the true reality in the kingdom of God. Let us open ourselves wherever we are in our journey, during this Lenten season, that we may see the power of God at work in us through our baptism and that we may see the new reality in Christ. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-84424762393975854992011-03-22T16:28:00.000-07:002011-03-22T16:29:11.127-07:00SermonSermon # 1032<br />March 13, 2011 <br />Matthew 4:1-11<br />James 1:17-27<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“Living by the Word”<br /><br /> When Jesus was lead into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, Matthew says it was the Spirit who lead him. It seems amazing to me that the leading factor to Jesus’ temptation story is the Spirit. It reminds me a little of Job’s experience when God allows Satan to have his way with all the Job had, and yet could not touch Job himself. For me, it begs the question of why. Why does Jesus need to be lead into the wilderness to face temptation? It is the question the story of Job seeks to answer – not specifically about Jesus or course, but the “why” question of: why things happen the way they do? Why me? Why do the innocent seem to suffer? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does an earthquake and resulting tsunami happen and bring so much loss of life and destruction?<br /> We have not received answers that satisfy. We leave it up to God knows best or some things are too high for us to know. Mystery is our answer and the only way we can live with such mystery is by faith. As Paul says it: “We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). If there is a verse of scripture that has the most modern feel to it, I think it is that we walk by faith and not by sight. Modern life is so oriented to what can been seen. <br /> Jesus was lead into the wilderness. For forty days and nights he fasted. Then, the devil comes to tempt him. Jesus turns away every temptation with a quote from scripture: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3). “Do not put the Lord your God to the test” (Deut. 6:16). “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him” (Deut. 6:13). The first temptation reminds us that we live not by bread alone, not just by the food we eat, but we live by the word of God. Not only does Jesus quote a verse from Deuteronomy that says we live by the word, but he demonstrates that very point by using the word to resist temptation. Jesus puts into practice what it means to live by the word that proceeds from the mouth of God. <br /><br /><br />What helps us live in the mysteries of life? God’s word. What enables us to walk without answers? God’s word. What sustains us in the face of natural disaster or war or sickness or death? God’s word. <br /><br />By the word everything was created. God said, “Let there be light.” In this speech creation began. In Romans Paul writes that it is God who “gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist” (4:17). The call into existence is by the word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We live and we are alive by the word. It is no small matter that our name is spoken when we are baptized, for in this symbolic act and speaking of our name, a new creation is beginning. In one way we are spoken into existence at our baptism as a new creation. <br />We proclaim in creation theology that God created everything by speech, a series of words. “Let there be light.” “Let there be a dome in the midst of the waters.” When a prophet said, “Thus says the Lord,” everyone knew to listen and listen well. Speech making is extremely important in biblical writings, for it is in speeches that we see much of the action and the density of a passage. Not just in words, but in actions, actions that in essence speak a word. Jesus hanging on the cross is a kind of speech that reveals more than words can say. And, of course, speeches are words, words of encouragement or judgment, hope or despair, promise or threat, and so on. <br /> Speeches usually intend to bring some kind of response or action or new thought to the hearer (and the speaker). The epistle of James, a speech given to believers in exile, is a speech that seeks to get people into action. James does not want a Church that just listens to a word, but a church that responds with actions that speak out those words and even speak louder than words.<br /><br />James 1:22 – But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.<br /><br />ABC news once did a special on religion in America and told the story of a man who had recently converted to the faith. He read the Bible for the first time in his life and he visited a local church for several weeks and nothing seemed to be going on like he expected. So one Sunday he asked an elder of the church, “when do you do the stuff?” <br />“The stuff?” <br />“Yes, the stuff.” <br />The elder was kind of puzzled, “What stuff?” <br />“You know, the stuff of the Bible. When do you care for the orphans, fed the hungry, make the blind to see, and multiply the bread? When do you do that stuff?” <br /> The elder responded, “Oh, that, we don’t do that anymore, we just talk about it.” <br /><br />This new believer raises the question, what ever happened to doing the stuff of the Bible? James seems to be saying we ought to be about doing “the stuff.” Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.<br /><br />Fred Craddock tells the story of a time when he was serving as dean at Phillips Seminary. It was for fifteen months. The secretary said, “There’s someone here to see you.” A woman asked me to come out to the parking lot and to her car. She opened the back door, and slumped in the back seat was her brother. He had been a senior at the University of Oklahoma. He had been in a bad car wreck and in a coma eight months. She had quit her job as a schoolteacher to take care of him. All of their resources were gone. She opened the door and said, “I’d like for you to heal him.” <br /> Fred said, “I can pray for him, and I can pray with you. But I do not have the gift of healing.” <br /> She got behind the wheel and said to him, “Then what in the world do you do?” And she drove off.<br /> Fred says, “What I did that afternoon was study, stare at my books, and try to forget what she had said.”*<br /><br />Be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.<br /><br />James may seem hard after hearing stories that seem to call us to do more than we believe capable. But what we do says a great deal. If we just read the speeches, hear the words, see biblical wonders and do nothing in response, James says we are deceiving ourselves. And we are very, very good at deceiving ourselves. Isn’t it odd how angry we will get when someone else deceives us and yet we so easily overlook our own self-deception? Perhaps that’s because a good deceiver never lets you in on the deception, which is why it works so well, and we, in deceiving ourselves, don’t even realize we are being deceptive, because we are so good at it. So how do we come to know that we are deceiving ourselves when the art of the deception is to never let the deceived in on the deception? Sounds too much like a complex psychological problem.<br /> It is easy to deceive ourselves. James looks at it like a person looking in the mirror and on going away, immediately forgets what he or she looks like. <br /><br /> 23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.<br /><br />We look into a mirror like we look into ourselves; we want to forget what we see. We invite the deception because we dare not look within and find the very deception we so comfortably live with. If we cannot help but be deceived by looking into a mirror, or by looking into the mirror of our soul, where shall we look for the truth? James writes,<br /> 25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-- they will be blessed in their doing.<br /><br /> “But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, the law that gives freedom…” God’s word gives us freedom from the self-deception, freedom from forgetting what we see in the mirror on the wall or in the mirror of our life. It is a question of where we look. Do we look to ourselves for the truth? Do we look to human tradition like the Pharisees did in Mark 7? Do we look to our television screens? Do we look to the psychic hotline? Do we look to planets and stars? Do we look to Twitter?<br /> No, we look to the perfect law, perfect because it does not deceive. The word of God stimulates us to look with honesty at ourselves and to act upon what we see and hear in the perfect law. The perfect law reminds us of what we so easily forget, that is, who we are and what we are to do and reminds us that we do not live by bread alone. <br /> Unfortunately, we try to live by whatever best suits our ways, whatever suits our self-deception. Sometimes we live by our wits. Other times we live by our common sense. We might say we live by what our grandpa always said. Or another might live by a particular philosophy of life. But we are deceived if we think that anything outside of God and God’s word will bring us life and blessing. <br /> To use James’ metaphor of the mirror, it is not easy to look into the mirror of God’s word. It is a mirror that reveals the truth about who we are and what we are like. We try to mask ourselves and put on happy faces even when pain grinds away at us. But unlike the mirrors of our homes where we put on our make-up or shave away our rough edges, the mirror of God’s law reveals all our faults. <br />But that is not all it does. It also reveals that our faces of deceit can be unmasked so that we may be both hearers and doers of God’s word. The Law reveals the forgiveness, the love, the mercy, the faithfulness of God. The word is the power of God to unmask our idolatries and reveal our self-deception. <br /> The life that is open to Truth is one that looks to God’s law, the perfect law that reflects, like a mirror, our life, that reflects God, and self, and hope, and love. This word reflects all Truth. <br /> We may indeed not be able to heal a man in the back seat of a car, or do the “stuff” of miracle, but we can do the word in ways that make those times of miracle possible. For only God can do the “stuff.” James calls us to do the word and God will do the stuff through us. <br /> Do not be deceived by the speeches of this world or by the masks by which we deceive ourselves, but look to God’s word; it is the only way to live in the fullness of life God intends. Amen. <br /><br />*Story from Craddock Stories, p. 21.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-50833957656427624612011-03-10T13:51:00.001-08:002011-03-10T13:51:44.732-08:00SermonSermon # 1030<br />March 6, 2011 <br />Hebrews 13:1-8 <br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />"No Fear"<br /><br />Hebrews is a unique book in the New Testament. It is not like the gospels or Acts which tell the story of Christ and the early church, nor is it like the letters that make up the rest of the New Testament that characteristically deal with church issues. Hebrews is more like a sermon filled with exposition and exhortation. The exposition of Hebrews is that of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and his sacrificial life. Hebrews forms a persuasive argument for who Christ is and what Christ has done in order to build a foundational theology which in turn exhorts Christians on how we are to live and what we are to do. Hebrews 13 is the last chapter of the book and a final "to do list" of exhortations; the final exhortations that seem to be tossed in at the last minute to insure various aspects of the Christian life are included: love, hospitality, remembering people in bondage, marriage, contentment with possessions, Christ’s presence, confidence, leadership, and Christ’s constancy.<br /> This morning’s reading concludes at verse 8, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." The entire sermon to the Hebrews has laid out the work of Jesus Christ as priest and sacrifice. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday, Jesus continues to work today as high priest. As the same Jesus Christ of yesterday and today, Jesus will continue to work as high priest forever. Jesus is the constant One who has spoken the words: “I will never leave you or forsake you.” Because of that – we are able to say, “I will not be afraid.” No fear. Imagine a life with no fear because we have such confidence in the abiding presence of Jesus Christ our Lord. No fear.<br /> The injunction of verse 8 seems a bit out of place, but this is the subject of the sermon – Jesus Christ himself and his work and how it affects the Christian life. That means that whatever else is said in this sermon to the Hebrews, it is said because of Christ…because the work and word of Jesus Christ has come, all of life is different. We now relate to one another through love. Marriages are held in honor. We seek contentment with what we have and we can be free from the love of money, but all of these things are not because of something we can do, only because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice for us. <br /> Sometimes people affect us in special ways in different areas of our lives. Teachers influence our intellectual development and our desire to learn. Sometimes that may carry over into how we work or how we relate to others. A friend might influence us by talking us into things we would not normally do, but the person of Jesus Christ does more than influence our actions. Jesus makes us different, creates us anew, reshapes, remolds who we are and therefore what we do and how we understand life. <br /> Only Jesus can keep a promise of never leaving or forsaking us. Life does not afford us the ability to keep such promises because anything can happen to us. But Jesus, because he has overcome death, is able to stay with us through anything as Paul tells us: "Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ" (Romans 8:39).<br /> Because we are changed from within, our conduct is affected, our relationships are viewed in new ways, and our allegiances change. The power of God enables new things to happen to our lives and in our lives. We can ask ourselves, "Are we confident and faithful enough to be able to say, 'The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid?'" Are there times when fear runs our lives rather than the Spirit of God guiding us? <br /> We can pray for God to help our unbelief, to help our lack of faith, to give us more and more confidence so that we CAN say:<br /><br /> "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can anyone do to me?"<br /><br />Not only can we say that, but we can live with the confidence of that statement affecting what we think, and say, and do. We will not be afraid to love, to show hospitality, to honor marriage, and so forth. <br /> Only in Christ are we able to let mutual love continue. God is love and without God we could not continue in love. Only in Christ are we able to show hospitality to strangers. In New Testament times, when Christians traveled they sought out Christians homes where they could rest. We are still called to show hospitality to others as our Christian conduct. Only in Christ could we remember prisoners. The Hebrews exhortation especially includes those who were imprisoned for their faith. We also shall remember those who suffer injustice and bondage of any kind because of faithfulness and for the sake of justice. <br /> The most beautiful marriages are those rooted in Christ, held in honor, without abusive conduct. Only in Christ can we begin to keep free from the love of money and be content with what we have. You can begin to see what Christ means in our lives. The conduct we practice in every area of life is shaped and molded by Christ and his work on the cross and in the resurrection. <br /> The action of Christ permeates the Christian life. Nothing is left untouched by God. There is no area of life where faith is separated. There are no parts of life where God is absent or where God is to be omitted. Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever in that he is constantly with us, Emmanuel. Jesus is constant in faithfulness, loyalty, and love. <br /> Therefore our lives of love and honor and faith are shaped and reshaped as we grow and learn more about Christ and his consistency. Our lives become lives of praise to God through right living as described in Hebrews. Our lives become lives of worship through the Christian conduct shaped in Christ. Our lives become sacrifices of praise and glory to the one who makes us his own.<br /> Central to the reading this morning is the promise and confession: "I will never leave you”, resulting in our faithful response: "The Lord is our helper, we will not be afraid." Words have power to shape us. When I was about 12 years old, a coach told me that I would never make it as a quarterback – I didn't have the ability. His words hurt me but also gave me the determination to try my best to prove him wrong. (No, he wasn’t using reverse psychology!)<br /> When someone who loves you tells you you look nice, or complements your efforts, or says anything that makes you feel better about yourself, you tend to gain confidence and feel good about yourself. The words that are spoken to us and by us help to give shape to who we are and how we respond to life. Sticks and stones will break our bones…and words can hurt as well, or they can build us up, building our confidence and trust. <br /> That is why it is so important for us to study the scriptures and to worship. It is here that we say the words of promise and confession. It is here that our lives are reshaped in the image God intended so that we can let mutual love continue or be content with what we have. Without these words of promise we would have little hope for the future. Without these words of confession, we would be at the mercy of the words of the world.<br /> Life comes from the promises of God and from these confessions of faith that we make and that we live by. I do not believe that the author of Hebrews accidentally placed promise and confession in the middle of exhortation. I believe it was intended to show us something about its power for life. Out of the word the world was created and out of the word Jesus brought healing and life and the word is still filled with power for life and healing. <br /> A concern is that our confidence falls short and our fears overcome us. I struggled this past week with what text to preach for today. Hebrews 13 was not a part of the lectionary but I brought it to the Bible study group searching for a message. Part of my struggle has been my concern over the direction of the Presbyterian Church USA in recent years over things like divestment from Israel to this past Tuesday as our Presbytery voted on proposed changes to our constitution. I recognize in myself that fear is one concern, my fear of what will happen, my fears of what it will mean for me personally, but also for our church and for the larger church in general. Change is always difficult for us. We fear the unknown, we fear the unfamiliar, we fear opening our lives and our thoughts to others. I found in this passage from Hebrews a word of encouragement, confidence, and comfort. The Lord may be our helper through this passage in Hebrews. The Lord shows us that we have no need to fear. <br />As the Bible study group was studying this passage on Wednesday we spoke of the first line, let mutual love continue and how very important we grow in love for God and for one another. But we also noted how fear often prevents us from loving one another and even loving God as we could. The same could be said for showing hospitality, how we fear people, especially in this day and age – so our hospitality suffers due to fear. Or take the issue of money as another example, our culture is obsessed with the love of money. We pine for games like “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” I read part of an article about the Texas lottery and the author joked that the slogan could be: “the family that plays together can claim together”, no doubt mimicking “the family that prays together stays together”. Fear drives us to love money, to hold back our love, and to fail to show hospitality among other things. <br />I began to look for texts of fear and the Bible has much to say, but one thing the Bible constantly says is “do not fear”. <br />In Mark 5 Jairus, a synagogue leader, came to Jesus to plead for his daughter who was deathly ill. “While he was still speaking, some people came from the leader’s house to say, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further?’ 36But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the leader of the synagogue, ‘Do not fear, only believe.’” In this instance the counter to fear is belief, trust in Jesus. <br />When Gabriel appeared before Mary, the angel said: “Do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God” (Luke 1:30). Fear is set aside with the good news that God has shown her grace. <br />When Israel was in distress, the Lord spoke through the prophet Isaiah: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name” (43:1). <br />We are very familiar with the words of Psalm 23 – “even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me.” <br /> The antidote for fear is God’s presence, God’s word of encouragement, trust in the Lord, redemption. The word in Hebrews is the promise of constant companionship which gives us confidence to declare that the Lord is our help, we will not be afraid. <br /> Fear is not easy to overcome. It takes prayer, experience, confidence, trust. I have fears over the future of the PCUSA, fears about getting my girls through college, fear that holds love back, fear that I do not know God deeply enough and yet fear to get to God more deeply. I fear publically telling you that I have fears! Such fears will only dissipate through confidence in Christ. I pray that we can gain more and more confidence in Christ our helper who promises to never leave us or forsake us, for in that trust I will not be afraid. In that confidence, we will not be afraid. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-29667627054704152222011-02-24T12:28:00.000-08:002011-02-24T12:29:39.895-08:00SermonSermon # 1029<br />February 20, 2011 <br />Ephesians 4:1-16<br />Dr. Ed Pettus <br /><br />“God’s Gifts”<br /><br />I. The Gifts He Gave<br /><br />Our God is a gift giver. God gives gifts to God’s people – abundant gifts, elaborate gifts, lavished upon us for life. Gifts come from God in a variety of ways. There are spiritual gifts, material gifts, gifts of talents, and gifts we don’t even recognize in our lives, gifts we take for granted, life, breath, health, and love. There are gifts given to us through others – often the person through which the gift is given is unaware that God is using him or her. <br />We are entrusted with these gifts – called to use them wisely, not to waste our talents or our material goods. We are called to seek out the gifts of the spirit and use them for the ministry. Gifts of hospitality, faith, healing, tongues, prophecy, teaching, pastoring, and many others. Gifts through talents, skills, resources available, and sometimes simply the gift of one’s presence, being here, being with someone in the hospital, being at the ballgame with a young person – just being available. <br />In today’s reading from Ephesians we see that God gave gifts so that some would be able to serve various roles in the Church. Paul writes some would be:<br />1. Apostles<br />2. Prophets<br />3. Evangelists <br />4. Pastors <br />5. Teachers (and if we carried the list out, this is not an exhaustive list); <br />6. Elders <br />7. Choir members <br />8. Sunday School helpers, participants in worship, and a host of others…<br /><br /> Apostles are those sent to do ministry in the name of Christ. Prophets listen for God’s word and notice what is happening in the world in order to proclaim the good and bad that come at the intersection of the Good News of God and the world. Evangelists have a special task of proclaiming the gospel. Pastors care for the church as a shepherd for the sheep. Teachers teach! <br />Elders are not listed in Ephesians, but the term elder comes from the Greek word presbuterion, which you may quickly notice is the root word for Presbyterian. Elders are also called in the Church for special tasks. The history of elders goes back to the Old Testament when elders were established to govern the people. Moses had too many folks to deal with so elders were chosen from among the people to bear some of the work of judging cases and dealing with problems. The New Testament saints kept this practice alive by appointing elders to serve in the Church. The apostles could not do everything so they chose others of high character to do ministry. Acts 6:1-6 gives one account:<br />Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait at tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.’ 5What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose [seven men]… 6They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.<br />In the Church today elders are chosen by the people, by the congregation, to work with the minister in ministry. They are called to exercise leadership, government, and discipline. They are to be people of faith, dedication, and good judgment. Their life should demonstrate the Christian gospel. Their duties include strengthening the faith and life of the congregation. With the pastor they are to encourage people to worship and serve God, to equip and renew the Church for work and mission, to visit and comfort and care for the people. The Book of Order states that they should cultivate their ability to teach the Bible and in some cases may be authorized to fill in to preach at churches that have no pastor. (G-6.0304a)<br />It is quite a calling to be an elder. As great as being an apostle, an evangelist, a pastor, a teacher, because each one has special tasks to do that make up the Church. God gives us all these gifts for a reason, for a purpose. Paul tells us the purpose of these gifts are:<br />II. Purpose of Gifts<br />To Equip the Saints<br />Who are the saints? Too often we think they are dead. Too often we think they are only Catholic. Too often we think they have to perform super spiritual things. Saints are Christians! Saints are you and I. Saints are the Church. The gifts that God gave to some are to equip all of us for two things:<br />1. for the work of ministry<br />2. for building the body of Christ<br /> That means that saints, Christians – we are all to be equipped for the work of ministry. It is not just for the pastor to do, not just for the elders to do, not just for apostles, or prophets, or teachers. It is ours together. We are all called, all gifted, and all equipped for ministry. We are not called to sit on the pew and watch everyone else do the work of ministry. We are not called to be pew potatoes like our cousins the couch potatoes. We are called to the ministry – to work – to participate – to experience God through service and worship and prayer and study and a host of other activities. <br /> We are called and equipped to build up the body of Christ. We are not to tear down, to ridicule, to bite one another out of anger and hatred, but to build up. We are to become body builders. We build each other through kind words, through acts of compassion, through care, love, and edification.<br /> Another purpose of the gifts is…<br />To bring unity<br />1. in faith<br />2. in knowledge<br /><br />This unity revolves around one person – Jesus Christ. It has been said that the one thing the various Protestant denominations share is Jesus Christ, and that is true. Where we part is in how we interpret Jesus for our life and faith. Each denomination should at least strive to come to unity in the faith and knowledge of Christ, but too often we fall short in each respective denomination. Certainly in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. we argue over authority of scripture, sexuality, ordination, and numerous other topics and we become more and more divided. We need to pray for our denomination and for the whole Church, for the unity that God seeks in us through these gifts.<br /><br />God gives gifts to do three more things in this passage. <br /><br />C. To bring maturity<br /><br />D. To speak the truth in love<br /><br />E. To promote growth in building up the body in love<br /><br /> The Christian life is marked by a growing maturity. We do not expect people to act at age 30 like they did at age 10. There should be signs of growth and maturity in their life. If we come to know Christ at an early age and continue with an infant faith twenty years later, then we are not growing and maturing. Faith is to be nurtured, matured, and strengthened as we grow in the body of Christ.<br /> We are called to speak the truth in love. Sometimes the truth hurts and we compound that pain by speaking the truth in anger rather than love, or in hatred rather than love. Paul says 1 Corinthians 13 – love is not rude or envious or arrogant. Speaking the truth in love is through kindness and gentleness.<br /> Again Paul speaks of growing in building up the body in love. Building the physical body requires discipline, specific exercises, work, some routine, and some variety. To see muscle growth one has to be disciplined enough to work out on a regular basis. Growth will not occur trying to work out on a hit or miss basis. Once in a while the muscles need a surprise so that they don’t fall into a rut and plateau at a certain level.<br /> Perhaps that is something we need to consider when we participate in the life of the Church. Participation requires discipline, exercise, work, some routine, and some variety. We need to try something new once in a while to see if God is at work giving us a new gift! We need to commit our lives to the disciplines that seek to help us build one another up in love, prayer, scripture reading and study, worship, fellowship, evangelism, and the like – in order to promote growth so that we are not living with a faith that has leveled off at the plateau. Like muscles that are not worked, faith may also atrophy and stop growing. So we seek out the gifts of God by getting more involved in your relationship with Jesus Christ, by being more active in the life of the Church, and by exercising our faith in ways that we have not considered before. <br /> <br />Today we have asked questions of elders that involve participation in ministry with particular tasks. Promises are made to work with others, showing love and justice in ministry, and to follow Jesus Christ. Membership in the Church also brings responsibilities for ministry. Every member of the Church promises to support the work of the church, that is the ministry, through the giving of money, time, and talents. Every one of us, elder, pastor, teacher, prophet, member, evangelist, has responsibility to the work of the ministry. <br />We do not ordain and install elders to do all the work of ministry. We should not have to rely on ten percent of membership to do all the work. Every one of us should be seeking God and God’s call in our life, understanding that God calls us to share the work. While our elders promise to do certain things, they have not promised to do it all. All of us should remember and renew our promises to active membership in the church. <br /><br />What have you promised as a member? Well, I am going to remind you! You have promised to proclaim the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ in the Savior. You have promised to take part in the life of the church, to worship, to pray, to study Scripture, and to learn the faith. Members promise to support the work of the church – giving money, time, and talents or skills. Members promise to participate in governing responsibilities, to attend congregational meetings or to serve as elder when called. We are to demonstrate a new quality of life reflecting our life in Christ. We are called on to serve, to live responsibly in the personal, family, vocational, political, cultural, and social relationships of life. And we are to work in the world for peace, justice freedom, and human fulfillment. These are the responsibilities of all of us as members of the body of Christ.<br />Sometimes we get too caught up on money issues and we do not spend enough time reflecting on our time and talents. Time is very precious and most talents or skills are not given because we are unwilling to give of our time. Discipleship takes time. Membership takes time. It certainly takes money to keep the church active and it takes our talents to foster growth and maturity. Christ calls all of us to this work of ministry. The Message concludes today’s Epistle lessons with these words: God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love – like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do. He keeps us in step with each other. His very breath and blood flow through us, nourishing us so that we will grow up healthy in God, robust in love. <br />Let us grow up together in love like Christ, nourished by the leadership of the church – the servants of the church. Let us all work together to make our church a place of faithful witness to Jesus Christ, a place of nurturing growth, a place of unity and peace. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-82949843141622592292011-02-16T06:24:00.000-08:002011-02-16T06:29:34.177-08:00SermonSermon # 1028<br />February 13, 2011 <br />Exodus 32:7-14<br />John 10:19-30<br />Dr. Ed Pettus <br /><br />“A Conversational Relationship”<br /><br /> The comedian Lily Tomlin once asked: “Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?” Let’s face it, when we hear someone say: “God told me to do this,” we are quite suspicious. And in some cases this is the right position to take, for we have seen too many cults whose leaders claim to hear God then lead his or her people to a fatal end. The Bible is not without this kind of language: “the Lord said to Moses”, or “the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah”. Sometimes it might be an angel who speaks to Joseph in a dream or tells Philip to go toward Gaza. Does the Lord speak to us? <br /><br /> The first scripture reading today includes a conversation between Moses and God. The first thing we might notice is the opening narration: “The LORD said to Moses.” We wonder if Moses heard a voice. Did Moses sense God speaking? The word Moses hears is so very specific: “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely.” We think that God has never been that specific with anything in our life. Why not? It is part of the reason we look up to Moses, these conversations, not like our prayers, not like any conversation we have ever had. God simply and clearly speaks to Moses. “9The LORD said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. 10Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’” <br /><br /> Then Moses seems rather nonchalant about it. He just responds as if talking to a buddy: “But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, ‘O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?” By the end of Moses’ speech, God has changed his mind and about the disaster he planned against the people. <br /><br /> Maybe it is courageous on Moses’ part. Maybe Moses is like no other in relationship to God. Or perhaps Moses is an example for every believer. Perhaps this is the kind of relationship God desires to have with each one of us, a conversational relationship. We learn, in this type of conversation with God in Exodus 32, that God takes seriously our role as a covenant partner…as a conversational partner. We have a voice in the conversation that is truly considered. God listens to our side, to our perspective, to our hopes, our fears, and our insight. Perhaps we can have a conversational relationship with God. <br /><br /> Jesus teaches that his sheep know his voice. Listen again: “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:25-27). Those who cannot hear Jesus’ voice cannot hear because they do not believe. But to those who believe – the implication is that we who believe can hear Jesus’ voice. Hearing God is normal in the life of anyone who believes. A conversational relationship is possible for all who believe. <br /><br />Moses, Abraham, Job, Jesus, Peter, and Paul, these and many others from the Bible teach us of the conversational relationship we have with God. We learn to listen, to hear the voice of God, and we seek to have the courage to converse with God. To that conversation we bring our voice. This is one of the wonderful things about the Psalms. What might we learn about our conversation with God from the Psalms? The Psalms give us voice, a language of prayer, if you will. The Psalms express the human condition and the expressions appropriate in addressing God: praise, fear, anguish, hope, confession, thanksgiving, complaint, worship, song, love…the language of prayer. <br /><br />Dallas Willard, in his book, Hearing God, shares several guidelines for hearing from God. How can we have a conversational relationship with God?<br />1. Communion with God – a personal relationship, intimacy, knowing God. It is only in the context of our relationship with God that we can come to know God’s voice. As James says: “Draw near to God and he will draw near to you” (4:8). It is only in this close relationship that we begin to discern God’s voice. Communion with God.<br />2. Scripture is our companion…the more scripture we know the better we can hear and the better we can speak. In getting to know the people who conversed with God, we learn to engage in that same kind of conversation. <br />3. Pray for just such a relationship with God. Ask God to teach is to pray, to listen, to pay attention.<br />4. Warning: a conversational relationship with God does not make us any more important than anyone else. It is a way of life. Speaking with God has its concerns, of course, as we can sometimes grow to full of ourselves if we get puffed up about this relationship. Our prayer may need to be: “Lord, when we are wrong, make us willing to change, and when we are right, make us easy to live with!” (from Hearing God, Dallas Willard, p. 40).<br /><br />God speaks to us – through impressions, a hearing in the mind, through circumstances, scripture, the community of faith, the still small voice, experience. But there is no magic formula. God speaks in many ways. More rare to have a burning bush, but more common just in a thought or impression. Most often through the Bible. This is where I believe we hear most often from God, but that is not to say that the kind of conversations like Moses had or Jesus had are not just as available and frequent as any other conversation. <br /><br />One experience that I would lift up that sort of came to me outside of reading scripture or in conversation with someone: I was walking along the golf course thinking about ministry and preaching and I “heard” God say: “Just speak the truth.” It was not an audible hearing, but something deep within. There was no question in my mind that God had spoken. It is not a grand statement, in fact, it seems quite an obvious statement. Isn’t truth-telling what ministers are called to do? Well, yes, but my interpretation of the statement was to not be afraid to speak the truth as interpreted in scripture. Do not fear presenting the findings and insights from the Word of God on Sunday mornings. It was a strange experience, probably 16 years ago now, and yet I still recall the weight of what I believe God told me. Not an earth shattering word from God! No burning bush nearby – not even a burning flagstick! Some might argue that I was just hearing myself thinking through what I needed to do, if nothing else, just in trust that that is what God tells all ministers. I cannot say yes or no to that, but I can only convey that, to me, it seemed that God had spoken. <br /><br /> Perhaps you have had a feeling and said something like this to yourself or to someone else: “Something told me that this was not right.” There are those occasions when we sense or know something deep within. But sometimes we do not pay attention to that voice. Sometimes we tune out like hearing without listening to someone. <br /><br /> I had a salesman call me at church last week asking me if I thought consumerism was damaging the commitment of service among our people. I thought, how ironic that this guy is about to ask me to consume one more resource in order to teach against consumerism. Was God telling me this? Well, yes, in the sense that I have heard God speak through the scriptures and in learning about consumerism and being a servant of Christ. Was God speaking to me? Yes, but not through my other ear as I was on the phone with a guy from Texas. God was speaking through scripture, experience, education, and disgust with telemarketers! <br /><br /> I would not record such a word from God as: “The Lord said to me”, but I believe it to be the Lord none the less! I will still be amazed at stories in the Bible that seem much more dramatic than any daily ordinary event when God speaks. God speaks to us and we speak to God because, as Acts 17:28 says: “For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’”. God is with us and we abide in Christ, we cannot help but be at some level of conversation. <br /><br /><br />Above all, the basis for a conversational relationship with God is love. God loves us and wants to be in conversation with us. We love God and want to be in conversation with God. Brother Lawrence, a seventeenth century monk, said of this conversation:<br /><br />There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it; yet I do not advise you to do it from that motive. It is not pleasure which we ought to seek in this exercise; but let us do it from a principle of love, and because God would have us. ~Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God. <br /><br /><br />The foundation of our conversation is love. God comes to us in many ways to communicate love. God speaks and expects us to speak because of love. The good news is that God has taken the initiative in love, to speak and to listen, to love and to deliver. Sometimes we might be like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who met Jesus on the road and yet did not realize they were talking with Jesus until Jesus broke bread with them. Other times we might have great clarity like Moses, but one thing is certain, God desires to be in conversation. God speaks to us and we will hear if we pay attention: to scripture, to one another, to life, to that whisper from within, to all the ways God may be speaking. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-11471456049652294712011-02-08T10:17:00.000-08:002011-02-08T10:18:24.308-08:00SermonSermon # 1027<br />February 6, 2011 <br />Matthew 4:23-5:12<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“The Good News of the Kingdom”<br /><br /> Jesus came with a message. Jesus came to bring good news. He wanted then and wants us to realize something about the life we have on this earth. Jesus proclaimed the good news of the kingdom of heaven. After Jesus was baptized by John in the river Jordan, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The next story in Matthew’s gospel tells that when Jesus heard John the Baptist had been arrested, Jesus began to preach his message. His first words were: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near”. As he called his disciples, he also went throughout Galilee visiting synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom. The beatitudes begin and end with the kingdom of heaven. The Sermon on the Mount is filled with the message of the kingdom of heaven. The gospel of Matthew also includes parables about what the kingdom of heaven is like. <br /> I have been preaching recently about discipleship and our focus on Jesus Christ and today we look at his message to us. It is a message of good news. Good news does not sell well today – if it did we might hear more in news broadcasts. Bad news seems to sell. It certainly gets most of the air time. But Jesus is clearly a bearer of good news for the kingdom of Heaven has some near. It is in our midst. This message drew people to Christ. His fame spread very quickly throughout the region and people would bring their sick family and friend to meet Jesus. And he preached and healed, and when word gets out…word of mouth is the most powerful form of advertizing. Good news was welcomed in Galilee, and Jerusalem, and Decapolis, and Judea and beyond the river Jordan. People were coming from every direction to see this healer and preacher of good news. <br /><br /> These people were eager to hear about a new kingdom. Many had probably lost hope for something new. Some thought a new kingdom would come in power to overthrow the Roman Empire. Some were exhausted by the same old messages given by messengers who spoke empty words. So Jesus comes on the scene speaking as one with authority. People took notice. The downtrodden, the poor, the beaten, the wounded, the marginal, everyone heard and came to hear more. Great crowds came. It is hard for us to imagine the number of people or the kind of people who came to see and hear Jesus. <br /><br /> It is in this setting where Jesus goes up the mountain and sits down to proclaim his message of the kingdom. We have come to call this the Sermon on the Mount. The congregation included Jesus’ disciples and all of these people who have come to be healed of physical disease and spiritual dis-ease. Today we will focus on the most famous part of this sermon – the beatitudes. <br /><br /> The beatitudes are on the one hand a favorite text for many in the Christian community, but, on the other hand, they are also troubling for us. We have struggled to understand fully what they mean. But perhaps we are helped in seeing this message through the setting, through the message Jesus had been proclaiming up to this point and to whom he was speaking on the mountain. <br /><br /> Some have thought of the beatitudes as goals to be attained. We hear there is blessing for a type of person, meek or peacemaker or poor in spirit, and we try to become that type of person thinking that we could then be included in the blessings and mercies given in the sermon. But taking into consideration the setting and the message that the kingdom has come near, we might see the beatitudes, not as goals to attain, but as recognition of the church, that is, of who is welcomed. Later in Matthew Jesus welcomes again with the call: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). <br /><br /> Jesus says, Blessed are…<br /> Blessed are the poor in spirit, the meek, the mournful, the merciful, and so forth. He is addressing people hungry for good news, people searching for wholeness, those who have questioned if hope is even possible anymore. Blessed are…an address to the Christian community, the searchers who had come to see Jesus. Some of you are poor in spirit, some of you are meek, some of you have pain, some of you are pure in heart and Jesus has a message of good news for you…you have a place in the kingdom of heaven. Meekness and poverty of spirit and persecuted ones, these are not goals for us, this is who we are. It is who the people were who came out from all over the region to hear and see Jesus. In essence the message Jesus brings is that those who are peacemakers, the persecuted, the pure of heart…these are signs of God’s blessing. Blessed are you who are in the condition you are in. Blessed are you who have this character of heart and mind and soul that has come to hear the messenger of good news. Blessed are you who are not received anywhere else.<br /><br /> Blessed are those…for they will…<br /> They will: inherit the kingdom, be comforted, inherit the earth, and so forth. Life in the kingdom is here and now but it is not yet fully realized either. They will see even more, they will see God, the will receive mercy, they will be filled. The beatitudes are about the character of the characters who came to hear Jesus and the destiny that is theirs to come and has even come near if not fully yet. The beatitudes open our eyes to who we are and give us the message of hope for the kingdom here and yet to come. Realizing who we are as God’s church in the world – we have hope in the kingdom of heaven.<br /><br /> <br /> Let’s take one example: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Who are they? Is “poor in spirit” something we should strive to become or a group Jesus sees gathered at the mountain? If anything we are not in a position to say whether or not we deserve to be in the kingdom of heaven or to receive God’s love or whether we are poor in spirit or meek or merciful. Poor in spirit – these are the kinds of people I think are poor in spirit: people who don’t understand the Bible. Has that ever happened to you? People who do not know what to pray. People who say they cannot grasp God’s love. People too sad or melancholy to believe they can be accepted by God. People who know they are bankrupt when it comes to the things of God. But who are those received into the kingdom? The least of these…those who believe they are un-receivable. Those who struggle with prayer and religion and spiritual disciplines and service and worship and communion. The poor in spirit is any who question or doubt and the good news preached to us in Jesus Christ is that we are welcomed in the kingdom of God! <br /><br /> We could never “do” enough – that is why we cannot earn our place in the kingdom. Beatitudes are not goals or conditions we must achieve, but examples of people who are welcomed into the kingdom…these are the kinds of people who were welcomed nowhere else! If beatitudes were goals to be achieved they would be nothing more than a new legalism, a form of works righteousness. Do we really think that Jesus set our goals at being poor and mournful and meek and persecuted? <br /><br />In Luke’s gospel and the parallel passage to the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also proclaims blessings to people who are in a particular way: poor, hungry, weeping…and the message is the same – there is hope in the kingdom of God. But then Jesus announces the opposite of beatitudes in the form of woes. The reason Jesus gives woes to the rich and the full and the laughing is because they have the danger of thinking they do not need the kingdom. It is terribly difficult to see the kingdom that has come near when we believe that we have it all and can get it all ourselves without any need for God. Terribly difficult.<br /><br />I think that what people heard in Jesus’ words was that anyone is bless-able! There is no one God cannot change. In the beatitudes people heard an upside down world being set right side up! According to Dallas Willard: “[The beatitudes] are explanations and illustrations, drawn from the immediate setting, of the present availability of the kingdom through personal relationship to Jesus” (The Divine Conspiracy, p. 106). What is Jesus saying in the beatitudes? How do we live in response to them? “They serve to clarify Jesus’ fundamental message: the free availability of God’s rule and righteousness to all of humanity through reliance upon Jesus himself, the person now loose in the world among us. They do this simply by taking those who, from the human point of view, are regarded as most hopeless, most beyond all possibility of God’s blessing or even interest, and exhibiting them as enjoying God’s touch and abundant provision from the heavens” (p. 116). <br /><br />Remember who came to see Jesus. These were the powerless, the weak and meek, the marginalized in society and they had little hope in their situation. Jesus sought to help people realize that they were able to be good, made good by being in a relationship with Jesus. That relationship means walking in the present kingdom of heaven, seeing the truth of Jesus’ message that the kingdom is here and is now and yet is to come. But we drift away from kingdom living and get swept into social and media expectations that say we need to have more and consume more and do whatever it takes to get ours and whatever else those messages are. <br /><br /> Jesus’ message brings us into the kingdom, helps us realize we are in the kingdom as we are – poor in spirit or meek or peacemaker or hungry or thirsty. The purpose of Jesus’ sermon was to help us become realistic with our lives and to open us to the nature of God’s kingdom. Jesus would go on to teach more about the kingdom. The kingdom is like a mustard seed, like yeast, like a treasure hidden in a field, like a net thrown into the sea and what we notice about these things is they are common things, like the common people who are received into the kingdom. This is the kingdom the world does not receive and of which it does not know. The kingdom is a condition of vision, love, hope, joy in which we dwell as God’s people, as a people in Christ. <br /><br /> I was trying to think of a way to visualize the kingdom that has come near, but Jesus himself said it is not a kingdom that we can say is over here or over there. It is a kingdom among us, or as could be translated, within us (Luke 17:20-21). It is the kingdom where we are welcomed, the kingdom we are to seek, and in which we are to grow to becoming changed in the inner life toward inward righteousness. We may not be able to see it but we can see a lot in the world that we know is not the kingdom of heaven. <br /><br /> In one way the beatitudes extend an invitation to those who have never been invited to anything – come to Jesus and in coming you will know the good news of the kingdom of heaven. For it is yours and you will be comforted, filled, called God’s children. In today’s world, this is still very good news, good news indeed! Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-91004556708902884002011-02-04T19:28:00.000-08:002011-02-04T19:30:59.417-08:00SermonSermon # 1026<br />January 30, 2011 <br />Luke 17:20-21 <br />John 14:15-27<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“Christ Focus”<br /><br /> Henry Jones lies on the stone floor with a gun shot wound. His voice is raspy as he repeats one instruction over and over: “Only the penitent man will pass. Only the penitent man will pass." The scene flashes to Indiana Jones who is entering a corridor of what we can only imagine are dangerous traps. Indiana is also quoting the instruction: “The penitent man will pass. The penitent... the penitent. The penitent man...” As the excitement builds, Indiana realizes the clue is a way through the corridor: “The penitent man is humble before God…” and as the cobwebs begin to move with a wind, Indiana gets it: “The penitent man is humble before God…” “He kneels before God.” Indiana makes it through the razor sharp triple pendulum, the first test. A few more traps to clear and he is on to the Holy Grail. Do you remember that scene from the Indiana Jones movie, The Last Crusade? <br /> The penitent man kneels before God. This is our first step to God. Humility. Dallas Willard writes: “Only the humble person will let God be God” (Knowing Christ Today, p. 151). Humility. Jesus spoke of humility in this way: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me” (Matthew 18:3-5).<br /><br /> Humility means turning from an attitude that says I can take care of my own life. I can handle things, I can manage, I can do it alone. Children know better. They know that they need help and they are not afraid to ask. Humility is our surrender to God. It is that conversion of attitude that says I know that I cannot make it on my own, I need God. I must get on my knees as a penitent person, humble before God. <br /><br /> “Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. 11The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. 12I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” 13But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” 14I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 18:9-14).<br /><br />Some people refuse to humble themselves. They may be too dignified or perhaps they will make a deal with God that they will work things out and if they run into any problems then they might call on God to give a helping hand. Sort of the “break glass in case of fire” relationship. The rich young ruler was one who refused to humble himself: “Then someone came to [Jesus] and said, ‘Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?’ …If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.’ 18He said to him, ‘Which ones?’ And Jesus said, ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; 19Honor your father and mother; also, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 20The young man said to him, ‘I have kept all these; what do I still lack?’ 21Jesus said to him, ‘If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ 22When the young man heard this word, he went away grieving, for he had many possessions” (Matthew 19:16-22). Only the penitent.<br /><br />One of the most amazing scenes in the gospels is in Matthew 13:58 where it is said that Jesus could not perform any miracles: “And he did not do many deeds of power there, because of their unbelief”. Imagine a group so arrogant, so disbelieving, so unwilling to humble themselves that Jesus could not even work a deed of power in their midst. <br />*****<br />We learn from the scripture that there is a particular kind of person God seeks. In Isaiah we read: “All these things my hand has made, and so all these things are mine, says the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit, who trembles at my word” (66:2). God looks to the humble – God seeks out those who trust in him with all their heart, who surrender, submit their lives. This is our entrance into life in the kingdom and in relationship with God through Christ. Humility.<br /><br />A second step involves the pursuit of inward righteousness. This is a hidden, inner dimension of faith that works in the secret places of the heart and soul. It is what we might consider our character. Jesus says something very interesting about inward righteousness: “Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19-20). What righteousness will exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees? A righteousness within. The scribes and Pharisees sought to demonstrate their righteousness on the outside, with pubic prayers and outward behavior. They sought to be “seen” as righteous, but they failed to truly pursue righteousness in the inner being. <br /><br />Without this inward righteousness we will never enter the kingdom of heaven. This is not the sense of going to heaven when we die, but it is the kingdom in which we are engage today, God’s kingdom. It is the kingdom Jesus taught as among us: “Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; 21nor will they say, “Look, here it is!” or “There it is!” For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you’” (Luke 17:20-21). This is the kingdom we enter through humility and this is the kingdom we engage through inward righteousness. It is a gift from God received from above. Jesus told Nicodemus: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above” (John 3:3). <br /><br />Living in the kingdom means that we are walking with Christ day by day, allowing the Spirit to work in us and we seek to transform our inner being – taking on the character of Christ. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6). <br /><br />These two elements, humility and inward righteousness, bring us into the interactive environment of knowing Jesus Christ. We enter into the kingdom of God. We begin our journey with and to God. As we continue to progress in humility and righteousness we grow to expect Christ in our everyday existence. We being to “see” Jesus everywhere, all the time. Dallas Willard calls humility and inward righteousness the preliminaries that must be in place before we grow into two substantial elements of living life with Jesus in the kingdom of God. <br />Two substantial elements - First, we begin to receive more readily Christ’s “presence and activity where we are and in what we are doing at any given time” (Willard, Knowing Christ Today, p. 153). This reminds me of the benediction I have sometimes used written by Richard Halverson: <br />Wherever you go, God is sending you, wherever you are, God has put you there; He has a purpose in your being there. Christ who indwells you has something He wants to do through you, where you are. Believe this and go in His grace and love and power.<br /><br />One of my favorite devotional readings from Oswald Chambers speaks of God using us in whatever circumstance we find ourselves. “You never can measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is of His mercy that He does not let you know it. When once you are rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God; and by the reaction of your life on the circumstances around you, you will fulfill God's purpose, as long as you keep in the light as God is in the light” (My Utmost for His Highest, August 30). Being rightly related to God is Chambers’ phrase for what we are referring to today in humility and inward righteousness. We are seeking in these two actions, to be rightly related to God, that is, to live in the kingdom of God today. <br /><br />Jesus teaches that we can live in this constant awareness of Christ’s presence: “Abide in me as I abide in you” (John 15:4). He also has this wonderful prayer of uniting us with him and God the Father: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:20-24). In the kingdom of God we are one in Christ, engaged in his ministry, his life, his mission, and ever growing, more and more into this awareness of Christ’s presence in the world and in us. <br />The second substantial element in our life in Christ is a natural movement from the practice of Christ’s presence – the desire to do what pleases God – obedience. <br />Obedience for Jesus is this: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments…Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:15-16, 23). Obedience and love are intertwined! “One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, ‘Which commandment is the first of all?’ 29Jesus answered, ‘The first is, “Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 30you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.” 31The second is this, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:29-31). <br /><br />Willard calls these four elements, taken together, the Christ focus. Humility, the intention of inward transformation, the practice of the presence of Christ, and progressive obedience – these enable us to focus our lives in Christ, with Christ, through Christ, for Christ. These four elements give us the ability to live an ordered life, practiced in humility, transformation, presence, and obedience. It is life in the kingdom of God, ever growing and learning how we might “eliminate distractions and keep our whole being focused upon constant companionship with Christ in our ‘nows’” (Willard, p. 156). Christ focus – day by day, moment by moment, as a student of Jesus, a disciple. I am seeking this kind of growth in Christ that enables me to have a Christ focus. I think of that as an awareness of God, a God consciousness that never goes away. I think this is the kind of yearning Paul had for the church when he said: “My little children, for whom I am again in the pain of childbirth until Christ is formed in you (Galatians 4:19). Christ is formed in you! A Christ focus. I’m not sure I have the pain of childbirth for that, but what I have is a hope for you and for myself, that we can continue to grow into this kingdom of God and to grow into faith, but most crucial, that we grow in a personal and intimate way in our relationship with Jesus. Take these four elements:<br />1. Humility<br />2. Intentional inward righteousness<br />3. Practicing the presence of Christ<br />4. Loving obedience<br />Take them on that we might develop a Christ focus. Christ focus. Live with that thought today: Christ focus in humility, in righteousness, in Christ’s presence, and in obedience. Amen.<br />*This sermon taken from reflections on Dallas Willard’s, Knowing Christ Today, p. 150ff.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4730024589872289781.post-86372563034971680692011-02-04T19:27:00.001-08:002011-02-04T19:27:50.205-08:00SermonSermon # 1025<br />January 23, 2011 <br />2 Peter 1:2-11<br />Dr. Ed Pettus<br /><br />“Participants in the Divine Nature”<br /><br /> We have been focusing on keeping the Lord always before us as written in Psalm 16:8 and seeking to know Christ from Philippians 3. Last Sunday we spent time in Colossians 4 regarding the removal of the old sinful life and putting on a new life in Christ. Today we enter Peter’s second letter to the church. Our passage deals with building up our faith and spiritual life using what God has already given us. The letter begins with the greeting of grace and peace, words loaded with theological meaning, Christian code words, concepts we learn in our knowledge of God and of Jesus. Grace – the unmerited favor God gives us in Christ, and peace – shalom in the Hebrew, wholeness, contentment, and rest. <br /> Peter encourages us as he reveals what God has given us already. God’s divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Just as he greets us with grace and peace in the knowledge of God, now he tells us that we have all we need for life through the knowledge of Jesus. It is in getting to know Jesus Christ that we come to know more and more of what God has given us. It’s like receiving a new gift to unwrap every time we learn a new verse of scripture or reflect on what Jesus did in healing someone. Imagine if you received a new wrapped gift in the mail every day…Monday you read the beatitudes and as you finish the UPS man drives up with a new gift. Tuesday a reflection on Psalm 100 and FedEx pops by with a gift. Wednesday – Psalm 16 and you cannot figure out how you missed it but there appears a gift on the kitchen table for you. <br /><br /> God gives us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ. Our response? Thank you, God, for these gifts, for this word, for that teaching, for this work, for that call. Thank you. And the more we give thanks, the more gifts that come. 2 Peter 4:4 “Thus he has given us…” he has given us more: through knowledge, through grace and peace, through his power, he has given us great promises. We are not told here what those promises are but we are told their purpose. Through his promises we may escape the corruption of the world. Through our relationship with God through Christ we are able to avoid all that garbage we see in the world. Through Jesus – that is the key to Peter’s exhortation. We know God’s provision, God’s power, God’s promises, only because we have come to know Christ. And having seen God’s gifts, we can also see the world for what it is – the corruption, the lust, the greed, the deception, and we can flee from it. We do not have to participate in the ways of the world. 1 John tells us more:<br /><br />“Do not love the world or the things in the world. The love of the Father is not in those who love the world; for all that is in the world—the desire of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, the pride in riches—comes not from the Father but from the world. And the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever” (2:15-17). <br /><br />The word that Peter uses to talk about the corruption in the world is a word that denotes internal decay. In essence the world and its ways are rotting away, but we can escape that decay by participating in God’s will – God’s divine nature. <br /><br />We may now participate in the divine nature. We are participants in the kingdom of God. We become children of God who play in a different kind of playground. We are citizens of heaven and a part of the priesthood of all believers. God has invited us into a new reality, a reality we discover, a reality revealed to us as we read and study the Bible, by getting to know Jesus Christ, by keeping the Lord always before us, by serving the Lord. God has invited us into this realm and said: “Make yourself at home, you have everything you need right here.” We have been asked to participate in the life of God. This is a life that does not decay, but lives forever. Being participants in the divine nature means that we share with God in his glory: <br /><br />“So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, 3for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1-4). <br /><br />As Paul tells us to seek the things that are above so too does Peter tell us to do something. Verse 5 begins with this phrase: “For this very reason…” For what reason? Because God has given us everything we need, because we have knowledge in Christ, because we have received promises, because we are now participants in the divine nature, for all these reasons…make every effort to support your faith. Make every effort. I’ve made the statement in my last two sermons that grace is not opposed to effort. Grace is opposed to earning, thinking that we can earn our salvation, but not opposed to the effort to grow in Christ since we have already been given everything we need in Christ. Peter tells us to make every effort, every effort to support our faith. Work at it, give it energy, time, devotion, love, discipline, obedience. This is no insignificant matter, but our very life, for Christ is our life. <br /> The same was said about God’s word when Israel was preparing to go into the promised land:<br />45When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46he said to them: ‘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. 47This is no trifling matter for you, but rather your very life; through it you may live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess’ (Deuteronomy 32:45-47).<br /><br />God’s word helps us to fulfill the word from Peter to make the effort to support our faith. We read and study God’s word that we might grow in Christ, know Christ, and know what it means to be participates in the divine nature. <br /><br /> So Peter bids us: “Support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, 6and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, 7and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love” (2 Peter 1:5-7). Eugene Peterson says it this way: “So don't lose a minute in building on what you've been given, complementing your basic faith with good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love, each dimension fitting into and developing the others” (The Message, 2 Peter 1). <br /><br />If we make this effort then good things happen…as Peter puts it: we will be effective and fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if we make no effort and we lack these things, then we are short sighted and blind and forgetful of what God has done and provided for us. What I think we tend to do is to think that God is just going to drop every insight into our lap, but what we find is that with no effort to see, we become more blinded by the deception of the world. As Liz Gilbert referred to this topic in her book Eat, Pray, Love: “eyes that are so caked shut with the dust of deception” (155). Our effort in faith is to grow in the knowledge of Christ until our eyes are opened to see the truth. St. Augustine said it this way: “Our whole business therefore in this life is to restore to health the eye of the heart whereby God may be seen” (from Eat, Pray, Love, p. 123). <br /><br /> We are participants in the divine nature. Participants by definition are active, included, taking part in something, and in this case, taking part in the kingdom of God, in the life of God. We have not been invited to sit down and watch but to live in obedience to God’s word, building our faith, making the effort! One of my favorite scenes from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies is the two pirates in the row boat and one is supposedly reading the Bible but he cannot read, so his response to the other pirate who points this out is that you get credit for trying. Make the effort!<br /> Thomas Merton points out in a prayer that desiring to please God is pleasing to God:<br />My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. <br /><br /> Desire and effort get us on the journey as participants in the divine nature. Obedience leads us into the transformation we seek and that transformation in turn makes us more obedient. But it takes desire and effort to become the obedient followers of Jesus that these passages from Psalms, Colossians, Philippians, and 2 Peter all anticipate. <br /><br /> Imagine yourself as a participant in the divine nature. You have been chosen to participate in the life of God, in the kingdom of God. We like to be selected, picked to play on the team, and God has chosen us to be his own. God has chosen us to come to know Jesus Christ his Son, personally and intimately, not just a knowledge for the head, but a knowing in the heart and soul. We are not just after information about Jesus, but transformation in Christ. We are participants in the divine drama, in the kingdom, in the story of God’s people today. Let us make every effort to support our faith: in prayer, in scripture study, in worship, in love, in peace and grace, in every way we can imagine to actively participate in the life God has given us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Receive God’s gift as a participant in the divine nature. Amen.Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01600774851974328213noreply@blogger.com0