Father, Son and Holy spirit May 30, 2010

“Father, son and Holy spirit.”

RUMC Trinity Sunday (Rylan Cole Fogt’s baptism)

May 30, 2010

 The English preacher, Colin Morris, has said that any preacher with good sense will call in sick on Trinity Sunday.   Well maybe I don’t have enough good sense to make change for a nickle, because this is Trinity Sunday and I am here.

The problem for preachers is that doctrine of the trinity- “Father, Son and holy spirit,” three in one // One in three: is frankly a little hard to grasp, a little hard to express.  It has been passionately debated for 2000 years and the debate has not always been polite.  It has led to divisions in the church, excommunications, even name calling; Unitarians (people who don’t believe in the trinity) accusing Trinitarians of worshipping three gods. The Trinitarians accuse the Unitarians of not being Christian.  Therefore, the debate goes on even today.

Let me say I am Trinitarian and I know that most of you are too.  We believe in one God known in three equally divine and eternal persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

If I were to get into all the debates and name calling today, there is a pretty good chance that by time I was done you would wish that I had called in sick today. 

So let me tell you two stories: and try to pull a couple of things together. 

In the beginning was the word.  And the word was with God and the word was God.  And God spoke forth that word saying “let there be”- and all that is came into being.  The air, the sky the clouds, and all the birds and butterflies and bumble bees of the air.   The word went forth and the waters of the seas and rivers were created along with the fish and whales, and choral, and platypuses and starfish of the sea.  Everything that swims was created by God sending forth the word.  And then the land and hills and valleys and mountains and canyons and caves.  And soon came by that same word the cows, and rhinoceros, the snakes and the deer, the bear and the buffalo.  All these things came into being and lived in the world created by the word that was with God and was God.

But God wanted more.  God said, let US make man in our own image.  (US is the Bible’s word, not mine)  So, THEY went to where the dry creation and the wet creation  and the airy creation all met and found mud.  They created Man,  but man was kind of lame.  He was just like all of the other creatures.  He ate and moved and talked, but something was still missing.  God wanted a creature with whom they could have relationship. So THEY  (the creator and the word)  gently picked him up I imagine by the scruff of the neck his arms and legs flailing and yelling put me down, put me down.  They cradled him gently in the palm of their hand and puffed into him-  They breathed into him the breath of life; the spirit of life.  The Ruach or breath of God.    The spirit that made him not just a creature, but a being just a little lower than angels because he was indeed the image of the one God known in creation as creator, word and breath.  The God we know as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  And God again spoke saying, this is very good.

Something was still missing though.  It is not good that man would be alone.  Man needed a partner so God created woman and so in doing created family and community and relationship.   Community was created.  Relationship was created.  Man is incomplete without community.  Outside of relationship to God and others man is not complete.

We are Made in the image of the God’s very essence is community, We are made in the image of God who seeks relationship; We are made in the image of God who is in his very being is found in the relationship between Father, son and Holy Spirit. One God three persons, blessed trinity,

Jump forward to Jesus time.

That same word that was in the beginning with God and was God- that same Word became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus the Christ.  Sent by the creator, conceived by the Holy spirit, Mary sang, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me,” and she bore a son.  A real live flesh and bone human son who was not just in God’s image, but was God himself.  

When he was about 30 human years old, the eternal word went to the river; again where the land and water and air all meet.  John baptized him in the Jordan River.   When the word arose from the watery tomb the breath -- or spirit-- of God blew the breath of life into his lungs and alighted on him light a dove.  While simultaneously the voice of the divine creator was herd to say “This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.”

Finally the perfection of creation was in the world.  The word spoken by God,  into the flesh of creation, filled by the spirit of God to be more alive than any being before or since.   Jesus was not just made in the image of God he was and is God.  Jesus was not just the fruit of the Word of God, he was himself the word.  Jesus was not just filled with the spirit; he was at his deepest core the spirit of God. -- Father, son and Holy Spirit. One God three persons, blessed trinity.

Flash ahead 2000 years. 

From the love of family and the miracle of creation comes Rylan Cole Fogt  for Christian baptism. 

What are we doing today?

I think there is a clue in the very words of baptism that we use as given to us by Jesus- “You are baptized in the name of the father, the son and the Holy Spirit.”    Do you recognize the trinity from the previous stories?  “You are baptized in the name of the father, of the  Son and of the Holy spirit. “

I have trouble wrapping my mind around everything that this means.  Baptism  is more than a miracle of God. Baptism is a Mystery of God.  I have come to see this week that the mystery may lie not in the definition of trinity, not in the technical details of the essence and the homousis, not in the distinction between essential and economic trinity but in the smallest word in Jesus’ Command. “IN”  As in “Baptize them IN the name of “

That “in” is the greek word eis.  Eis is also commonly translated  “INTO.”   I think that sheds a whole different light on baptism.  “Go and baptize them INTO the name of the father and the son and the holy spirit.”  “You are baptized into the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit.”  Not just baptized by the authority of God.  Not just baptized in response to the command of God.  But actually baptized into the holy mystery of God himelf.  Baptized into the Holy mystery of the God who is one in three and three in one.  The God who is at one and the same time the Father who spoke Rylan into existence, the Word or son who  is the creative and recreative power of God’s love in flesh, and the spirit that leads us forward from baptism In new life as part of the new creation.

In baptism we don’t just join the church, we don’t just dedicate a baby, we don’t just go through a ceremony.  In baptism we are taken into the mystery.  In baptism we become part of the mystery.  In baptism the mystery of God’s love and God’s salvation become part of us.

The mystery is this

¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^[a]have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. … because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

The holy spirit: who's in charge? May 23, 2010

 “The Holy Spirit: Who’s In Control?”

RUMC- Pentecost 2010

May 23, 2010

Surprise!  Happy Pentecost.  ((Handing our balloons)   Surprise- happy Pentecost.

When you left home this morning, did you realize this was one of the three most important days in the Christian year?  Today we celebrate Pentecost!  We celebrate it with balloons and streamers.  It’s one of the three major feasts of the Christian church, Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost.  

Just think you might have missed it because it is the only one not yet captured by the mass market.  I doubt that any of you sent Pentecost cards.  I didn’t see any Pentecost sales going on.  I don’t think there was a Pentecost egg hunt today.  And as far as I know, no one gets a three-day weekend for Pentecost.  But that’s OK

The Bible describes the power of the Spirit of God coming to us like an earthquake, like a hurricane, like a firestorm, wind, flames, and bringing surprising gifts like people  from different countries each hearing the disciples in their own mother tongue.  It is not the destructive nature of the earthquake or the wind that is important here, but their ability to shake us up.  We cannot control any of these things.  The Holy Spirit is the wild and crazy part of God’s personality.  Pentecost should remind us that we serve a wild and craaaaazy God.

Actually, I’m glad the merchants and our society have not picked up and packaged Pentecost because Pentecost is a celebration of the God who cannot be tamed.  It is a celebration of the God who cannot be contained in a 3-day weekend.  It is a celebration of the God who cannot be put on sale for three for a dollar.  Our God is never content to be quiet, sedate, or well mannered.  Pentecost really should be more like a surprise party than a Federal Holiday.

That first Pentecost we read about this morning should not have been that big of a surprise.  Jesus spent what we see as two chapters in John as well as other places teaching about the Holy Spirit and promising the Holy Spirit would come.

The Disciples were together for Pentecost.  Now that might seem strange to you since Pentecost, as we think of it, had not happened.  But it reminds us that Pentecost is the Greek name for the Jewish Holiday called Shavuot.  Shavuot was the festival of the giving of the torah- including the 10 commandments to Moses on the mountain.  It became a harvest festival because it coincided with the end of the grain harvest and beginning of the fruit harvest in Israel.  It was also called the festival of the first fruits.

So the disciples were gathered in one place for Shavuot.  They may have been praying or worshipping, or studying.  It was nine in the morning so maybe they were waiting to join the parade of farmers taking their first fruits to the temple.

Whatever they were doing, they were minding their own business.  Innocently sitting together studying or talking and all of a sudden, this wild and crazy God came rushing in like a violent wind.  The house must have shaken as if a freight train was going through the living room.  The windows rattled, the dishes clanged as if they were having an earthquake.  Except it was just that house. 

It was not just the disciple’s imagination either, because others must have heard.  They gathered from all kinds of nations.  You heard that in the scripture reading.  They too had been minding their own business celebrating Shavuot when our wild and crazy God disrupted their day.  But the day hadn’t even started to get weird yet.

As they all stood talking, each one heard the disciples speaking in their own language.  This was not speaking in tongues.  This was not a gift given to the disciples.  This was a gift of the Holy Spirit given to the hearers so they could to understand these men, even with their thick Galilean accents.

And what they heard really rattled their world.  Peter preached about the promise of the Holy Spirit from the prophet Joel.  Each heard the sermon in a way that they understood it.  And he went on to teach about how this wild and crazy God actually came to us himself as Jesus Christ and how that didn’t work out so well because we killed him.  In the end, however, God had one more trick up his sleeve.  He threw the biggest surprise party ever by raising Jesus from the dead- unsealing the tomb and letting him loose on those 11 men from Galilee to shout “surprise!”

Now, 50 days later, those men who had lived in fear- those men who had been living on the down low- those men were keeping pretty much to themselves, were filled with the wild and crazy Spirit of God, and became what some thought were blubbering fools- drunk at nine in the morning.  Actually, they were not blubbering fools, they were the first Christian evangelists, and that day their church grew from 11 to 3011.  For those of you keeping score that is a 27,372 percent increase!

If that is not the doing of a wild and crazy God- I don’t know what it is?

1.    I gave you balloons a few minutes ago.  I want you to blow those balloons up but not tie them.  We will tie them later.  But I want to point something out first.  If we tie them, we have a fixed amount of air contained in a discrete space bounded on every side by uniformly colored Latex.  That is a pretty safe toy.  Let’s not do that yet.  Hold your balloon up high.  The wind came and filled those people with the Holy Spirit.  It was a wild and crazy time.  No one could have predicted what would happen next.  Now aim your balloon right for the ceiling - straight up so you don’t poke anyone’s eye out.  Let go of your balloon and see where it goes.

Did any of them go straight for the ceiling?  Probably not.  Like our balloons-, we are filled with the spirit of a wild and crazy God and there is no telling where that spirit is going to propel us.

2.    Now retrieve your balloon.  Blow it up again and do not tie it.  Do you all know how to hold the neck so it squeaks at it deflates?  OK Get ready.  We are going to play “I’m goanna sing when the spirit says sing.”  (squeak balloons)

Oh, not very pretty was it.  That is the second thing about being filled with the Spirit of the wild and crazy God.  It is not always neat or pretty.

3.    Now blow it up one last time and tie it off.  Now bounce them around back and forth. . .  Hear the laughter and see the smiles?  That is the third thing about being filled with the Spirit of the wild and crazy God.  It makes us wild and crazy happy.

In February we started a study entitled “If you want to walk on water, you have to get out of your boat.”  We were innocently and happily minding our own business working our way through that book and the sermon series.  It was about that same time that the taskforce on family and youth ministry was meeting.  They had a wild a crazy idea that just “seemed right.”  No one knew if it would work.  I have to admit I was a little skeptical too.  The idea was for LIGHT on Wednesday night.

As the idea grew (blow) and grew (blow) and grew (blow) it seemed more right.  As the time got closer and closer, the vision got bigger and bigger and 8 weeks ago, it took off.  It has been one wild ride! 

·       An average of 80 people every week.

·       Classes filled to overflowing.

·       Scrambling for more teachers.

·       Trying to learn names.

·       What do we do with 17 children under the age of seven in a 10x16 classroom?

·       How do I preach to 50 elementary age students and adults, some new and some mature Christians?

·       What do we do with 19 new families?

·       What do we do with six families who started coming when we haven’t seen for a year or more?

It has been a wild ride and the spirit has propelled us into a tremendous ministry.

(Blow it up again)

It has not always been pretty.  (Start letting it squeak) 

·       There have been children crying.

·       We may have lost some to overcrowding.

·       My confirmation class went from being a morgue to being a zoo.

·       We are more than a little nervous about starting up next fall.

·       We have to find ways to use our space a little more efficiently- and that may or may not cost us some money.

·       We have seen an effect on Sunday morning worship.  Fewer children.  A slight decline in attendance but a 60% increase in total attendance.  We will have to respond to those changes.

·       We have to wonder how we will staff this in the fall.

·       We have to reckon with making dinner for 80 people every week.

·       I have to learn to preach to this new service.

·       Maybe you haven’t seen some of your friends lately.

It has not always been pretty but our wild and crazy God has put a song in our heart every week.

(Blow it up again.  Tie it off)

But look where we have come!  Look at the joy we have experienced!

·       We have 19 more families in our church than we had 8 weeks ago.

·       We have doubled our Sunday school attendance in the last 8 weeks.

·       We have reactivated some families

·       We have done something that I am convinced we could have never done on our own.

·       We stepped out of the boat- and holy cow!  We’re walking on water people!!

·       We have moved from a congregation of boat potatoes to a congregation of water walkers.  Even if you don’t feel like you have had a lot to do with this. 

o   Your prayers have made all the difference in the world.

o   If you showed up even one week in support of LIGHT you made all the difference in the world

o   If you bit your tongue even once to keep yourself from saying something negative about this crazy idea.  You have contributed more than you know.

o   If you are sitting here today, I guarantee you that you had more to do with LIGHT than you know.    

I thank you for that and so do the families from Wednesday night.

Finally, I make two observations in the form of guarantees.

·       I guarantee you (whether it continues for another year or 5 years or 50 years) LIGHT has changed lives.  You may or may not ever know the difference it made, but it is changing lives by the power of the wild and crazy God and the reckless love of Jesus Christ.

·       Finally, I guarantee you, that this church will never be the same.

o   You have seen what you can do and you can never doubt the abilities of our “little old church” again

o   You have seen what God can do and you can never again doubt the ability of our wild and crazy God to raise the dead, forgive your sins, bring people through the doors, or put people in the pew.

Challenge you, from now on- from now on every time you feel that wild and crazy spirit knocking on the door to your life.  Every time you hear the rap, rap, rap, or that pound, pound, pound of the Holy Spirit in our church.  Every time you feel your heart quicken and your eyes tear up with awe and inspiration.  Recognize who it is.  Recognize him and jump right up out of your boat to be part of whatever unpredictable, uncontrollable, unstoppable ride he may have in mind for you.

You serve a wild a crazy God and he seeks some wild and crazy disciples.

AMEN

God wants to forgive May 16th 2010

“God wants to forgive”

RUMC

5/16/2010

Do you think you could forgive someone for killing someone you love?

Ed was the associate pastor at Bettendorf Asbury when we started attending there.    At 6-10 you could spot Pastor Ed towering over almost everyone in the congregation.  He fit right in with the Harlem Globetrotters when he worked as their business manager for a number of years.

Ed was a big man for another reason.  In 1972, when Ed was 21 his father was gunned down in the Shamrock tavern in Davenport, Iowa.  A gang of kids from across the river in Rock Island killed him when he ran in to get a beer for himself and a Pepsi for his wife.  Sherman White was the first of the accused to stand trial.  He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.

Still scarred by his father’s death, of course, Ed went on with his life.  Eventually he was called into the ministry and developed a tremendous ministry with alcoholics- a struggle he knew very personally.  I wasn’t in the Saturday night service in which Ed decided that he would forgive Sherman White.  I remember, however, being stunned when he shared the news on Sunday morning when he announced that he was going to the prison to visit and forgive his father’s killer.

In the mean time, the courts had thrown out White’s conviction because new evidence surfaced showing that he was merely a lookout that night- not a gunman.  Ed not only visited Mr. White and forgave him for his part in the killing, but advocated for his release from prison. Then the real shocker:  Ed offered to let him come live in his home when he was released.  I remember the first Sunday Ed brought him to church to introduce his new friend.  After serving 28 years for his role in killing his father, after forgiving him, Ed took Sherman White into his home to help him get on his feet. 

FORGIVENESS

We don’t know what happened to the man in this story from Mark.  Maybe he was paralyzed by an accident.  Maybe he was born that way.  Maybe he was hurt while he was showing off or doing something really stupid.  Either way it must have seemed like a lifetime of imprisonment in a body that would not run, or stand or even move.  The doctors were powerless; the most advanced medical technology of the first century had not been able to repair the damage that had been done.  He seemed doomed to a life sentence on his cot.

One day his friends picked him and took him to Capernaum where they heard Jesus had been preaching.  They knew the doctors said it was hopeless, they knew that the best technology had failed.  They knew that it was a long shot- but they believed if ANYONE could help-, it would be Jesus.

It took longer than they thought to get there and they were late.  When they looked down the street there was already a huge crowd spilling out into the yard and even the street.  Disheartened they stood watching.  They could hear his voice and something kept drawing them nearer.  They came to the edge of the crowd and could not get through.  They worked their way around the outside of the mob.  Trying to get as close as they could, they climbed a fence and on top of the shed and finally made their way to the roof. 

They pulled the man up using some rope they found.  While they were sitting there listening to Jesus, one friend’s foot pushed through the stick and mud and grass roof.  Embarrassed he pulled it back real quick hoping no one had noticed. 

He looked through the hole and saw that they were right over Jesus head.  If we could just get him to Jesus he would help, he thought.  That is when he had an idea.  He started digging through the roof.  He parted the grass, loosened the mud, and pulled out a stick.  The friends started doing the same and soon they had a hole big enough to lower their friend using the same roped with which they had raised him to the roof.

The clamor did not go unnoticed, but Jesus seemed to understand and motioned to leave them alone.  Jesus watched the stretcher come down from the ceiling.  The crowd buzzed with accusations and snide remarks about these vandals and how they would pay for their damage and how disrespectful they were.  They said this man doesn’t belong here, and he is disturbing the master’s teaching and they ruined the roof.  You can imagine the things people said.

Jesus just looked at the man who lay in front of him.  He bent down and said loud enough for others to hear, “Your sins are forgiven.” 

What did he say? - Sins forgiven?  Sins for given! What sins?  That’s blaspheme.  He can’t do that.  Can he do that?  What does he mean?  What is he doing?  He can’t forgive sins.  Only God can do that!  What did he say?  Did he say sins?  The murmuring rose to a loud buzz.

Jesus said, “You doubt that I can forgive sins?  Watch this. . .  Pick up your bed and walk home.”  There was silence as one toe moved a little.  Then a foot and the other foot, then a knee and the man shifted his position.  He raised his legs and slid them over the side of the stretcher.  Slowly, feebly, weakly, tentatively; he squatted, then crouched, then stooped, and finally stood up steadying himself on Jesus arm for he had not stood for a long time.  He shook one leg, stretched the other, picked up his bed and the crowd parted.  He walked out of the house, not only healed physically, but also freed and forgiven spiritually.  What a day that was!  He and his friends jumped and skipped and praised God all the way home!!!

FORGIVENESS

What’s the point?

First- forgiveness is given not taken or earned. 

God is not ‘for-taking.”  God is not “for-earning.”  God is not “for-deserving.”  God is forgiving.   It is impossible to take, earn or deserve forgiveness. Sherman White did not deserve the treatment Ed showed him.  Sherman White did not earn the treatment Ed gave him.  Sherman White could not have taken the treatment Ed gave him.

The paralytic could not have taken, earned or deserved anything from Jesus.

Forgiveness is given, by grace. Sherman received Ed’s grace.  The paralytic received Grace from Jesus and we can receive forgiveness from God in Jesus Christ.

Second, Jesus had only one requirement for forgiveness.  He saw them men’s faith and he said “Your sins are forgiven.”  The man’s faith and his friends faith brought him to Jesus.  That’s all.  They came to Jesus in faith and they were forgiven.  No hoops, no tricks, no requirements.  Faith alone – nothing more, nothing less.

Finally God is ultimately forgiving.

My friends, God wants more than anything in the world; to forgive you today.  God wants more than anything in the world; to have you surrender to his love and forgiveness.  It doesn’t matter what you have done.  It cannot be any worse than killing his only son on a cross.  It doesn’t matter what you haven’t done.  It can’t be any worse than standing by and watching his only son die on the cross.  When humanity did the very worst thing ever with the cross- God did the very best thing ever with the empty tomb. 

This is your invitation to walk out of that prison of sin

This is your invitation to rise from that bed of guilt

This is your invitation to emerge from the darkness of the tomb of shame into the light and the love of God in Jesus Christ.

----------------------------------------

Let’s pray together.

 God you are so amazing. You are so good. 

I don’t live the way you would want me to live.

I come to you today in faith.  Not on my own goodness- but trusting in yours.

I come to you in faith asking for your forgiveness.

I confess to you all the things that tie me in knots. 

I confess to you all the things that imprison me.

I confess to you all the things that trap me inside of my guilt.

Clean my heart, clear my mind, and take the knot of guilt from my stomach. 

Forgive me, O God. Forgive me I pray. 

AMEN