TODAY the Scripture is Fulfilled 1/27/19 Epiphany 3C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

TODAY the Scripture is Fulfilled

1/27/19       Epiphany 3C       Luke 4:14-21

All the neighbors have been gossiping about Jesus over morning coffee, and talking over what happened at his baptism as they gather at the local deli for sandwiches.  “You hear about that thing Jesus did?”  “Yeah, Joseph and Mary’s boy.” “I hear from Sadie that at his bar mitzvah,  he got lost talking with the Rabbis and made them have to turn around to get him - A whole 2 more days that trip took!”  “Wasn’t there some story about a wedding where suddenly there was a lot more wine?”  “He’s visiting his mother right now, that boy.  Home from traveling, they say, with a bunch of friends.”  “Maybe he’ll settle down and give them some grandchildren now.”  “I don’t know, he’s always been kinda different…” “I don’t know, he did go see that weird guy John who was baptizing people out in the desert.”  “They’re cousins, right? Maybe there’s  some ‘crazy’ in his genes, too.” 

Anyway, since Jesus is home, he’s asked to help out at church, and read the Scriptures.  Maybe he’ll take his place among the men now, maybe he hasn’t forgotten his training in reading the old Hebrew.  So Jesus takes up the scroll and finds Isaiah, and reads the words of the prophecy:

 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He rerolls it, gives it back, then sits and begins to teach - - and makes for more gossip and talk, because he says, “TODAY this scripture has been  fulfilled in your hearing.”

What??  Is he saying that he, of all people, little Jesus all grown up now, is fulfilling the words of the great Isaiah????  Is he claiming to be a greater prophet than Isaiah, that he fulfills the prophecy????  But he’s just Mary and Joseph’s boy! Our sons ran foot races with him, played ball with him.  Remember that time he skinned his knee?  Why, he’s just like us, one of us!  And he’s still young - how can he say these things like he knows more than our rabbi, who’s been here 20 years? 

Its hard for them to let go the way they’ve looked at Jesus as the boy next door, or the boy down the street.  The carpenter’s kinda odd boy.  The other gospel writers say that he wasn’t able to do many miracles in his hometown - too difficult for people there to look at him with faith.  You know what makes an expert, right?  A stranger with a briefcase. Jesus is too familiar, and that’s confusing.

Let’s look again at what Jesus says that he fulfills:   he says that the Spirit of the Lord is on him, that he has been anointed, or set apart by God to do certain signs of the age to come - he is to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to captives, free the oppressed, and just generally proclaim this a special time of God’s favor.  In him, in other words, the lion lays down with the lamb and all other signs of God’s realm are showing that they are fulfilled.  And these folks of the village here are seeing it with their own eyes. 

The language this is written in has some peculiar verb tenses that English doesn’t have, and some words that carry deep meanings - its difficult to translate word for word, as our language doesn’t have the total equivalent.  The verb “has been fulfilled” is one of those weird tenses.  Y’know, we have past, present, future, and some others.  The verb used here doesn’t mean that this fulfillment happened once in the past or the present, and that’s all.  Its a verb tense that means its happening now, and will continue to happen into the future.  TODAY the words of prophecy are being fulfilled.  When TOMORROW becomes today, the words of the prophecy are also being fulfilled. And every today after that, the prophecies are being fulfilled.  It is a new era, an ongoing era... - an era of God’s favor, an era of healing and making right, an era of prisoners released, oppressed ceasing to be oppressed, and the poor hearing good news instead of always hearing hard things and more bad news.  It is an era of God’s favor all around. 

Jesus chose these words from the prophet Isaiah to describe his call, his anointing, the reason why the Spirit of God came upon him.  And the word he chose to say is a word that is still true in our TODAY - we are still in that era, we who make up the current body of Christ are still the called and anointed to be sharing the good news that this is a time of God’s favor. As the body of Christ, the church, this is our call just as it is Jesus’. 

I’ve been doing a good bit of thinking about the purpose of church, the reason for church, and the expected work of the church.  Actually, for most of my ministry I’ve held a view of church that I’ve tried to preach, but never felt that I communicated it well - or at least it never seemed to change much of anything, even when the folks liked my sermons. Even when I’ve been able to work with Sessions and congregations for 4-5 years in a row, I’ve never felt that I moved their understanding much from the way “church” has been done for several generations; that is, more like a non-profit do-good organization where institutional requirements are met, and the preacher is responsible to see that people join and the budget keeps up and programs that have always been done are maintained.  People “enjoy” worship services more for the sense of continuity with their childhoods than with a sense of the greatness of God; more for the sense of the familiarity of the order and the songs than for a deep feeling of praise to the God who makes all things new; more for good performances by the choir and the preacher, for affirming perhaps the moral codes it endorses and makes them feel like good people, than a hunger for a deepened spirituality and maturity in faith.  People like seeing each other and finding out who’s been sick, and organizing nice events. Just keeping this nice thing going the way its always been.   Sermons are nice religious talks that are informative and kinda motivating;judge the preacher by their speaking voice and their delivery style.  Everyone does their duty rather than using the gift the Spirit has given them. Find more people like us to join and fill the pews, rather than proclaiming the gospel of forgiveness and grace that people so desperately need to hear and heed.  Being able to quote more verses and name the chapter and verse, rather than wrestling with the difficult task of learning to walk the walk of Christ.    

Friends, if that’s all there is to church, no wonder more and more folks are finding it rather meaningless to their lives, a rote performance of a social duty that doesn’t really call to them anymore.  It doesn’t change their life, it doesn’t support their seeking and trying out of their personality and development, it doesn’t affect much in the community or make much difference in their life. Its a waste of a Sunday morning. 

Of course there IS an aspect of church as a community, a people who know each other, love each other and care for each other.  In a community like this, people are accepted, foibles and all.  Strengths and weaknesses are known and accepted.  God knows this is important for people’s lives...I don’t think we are meant to be isolated and alone.  HOWEVER, a community has to be aware of what we read last week - that people are different, and have differing gifts that the community needs...even people who seem the most different.  A close community that squashes difference or looks askance at those who question or challenge the norms, is an excluding community rather than a beloved community.   It can become an ingrown community that has forgotten that God is a God of surprise, of new life, of creation and recreation. And the winds of the Spirit can blow in unexpected and unanticipated ways. 

I mean, who could have predicted that God would choose to live among us as one of us? Who could have predicted that Joseph and Mary’s boy would speak such a new word, and with the authority of the Spirit? Or not a totally new word, rather a word from old prophecy that had been neglected or not understood?

Because Jesus also speaks a word from within the tradition - a word spoken hundreds of years before within the same faith; yet still a disconcerting word of freedom that will shake the way that patterns had fallen into.  And as Christ’s body, the church, there are more aspects of church than community - there is also the aspect of the prophetic word, the social justice word, the wholeness and wellness word, the political word even - that the poor are not forgotten by God, which can really challenge those who are well-off in the system; that those oppressed will be set free, which can be bad news to the oppressors and controllers; that captives will be released, which is bad news to those who profited as the jailers; that the blind will see again, which is bad news to those who are comfortable with the fiction that everything’s okay, simply because its okay for them.  The prophetic words that Jesus chooses to read and apply to himself is a discomfiting word to some, while a word of liberation to others.  In the realm of God, EVERYONE needs to be well, free, seeing and unchained - or else the whole system is judged wrong.  Invisible people need to be seen and cared for; hurting people need to be seen and cared for; those on the underside of the system need to be brought into the light and healed. 

Jesus is proclaiming some social upheaval - the good news of God’s favor for those who have been invisible.  Those who have been in power may at first hear it as bad news, but actually their salvation also needs this upheaval - it is not God’s realm when there are those who do well and those who don’t - in God’s realm, everyone has enough and everyone is whole. 

If we are to be Christ’s body, which is how the church is described in Scripture, this kind of healing and restoration is our call, too.  And you see where it got Jesus - this isn’t always an easy message to preach to the ruling classes, or dominant population, or those who do well in the system of the world. For everyone to have enough, some of us may have to learn to do with less. While some will feel like they’re walking into the sunlight, others may feel that they are losing power.  Yet its for the good of all, eventually, because in God’s realm, everyone is important, everyone deserves honor, and everyone is healed.  This is where the Spirit of God will take us, because it IS the spirit of GOD, after all.  And this is our call, as it is Christ’s. 

Yes, we support one another in love.  And yes, we gather in fellowship, as those who work together for God.  But that’s not the only reason for the church - the main reason is to join Christ in proclaiming the year of God’s favor, to witness to God’s grace towards humanity in offering restoration and wholeness through faith, to join Christ in offering this gift of Gd to the world.  We might admire Jesus for giving his all in sounding this message; the real call, however, is to follow Christ’s example, and follow Christ’s footsteps, and follow Christ in proclaiming good news.  AMEN.

We Have What We Need 1/20/2019 Epiphany 2-C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

We Have What We Need

1/20/19                    John 2:1-11, 1 Cor 12:1-11              Epiphany 2C

I can only remember one pot luck where we ran out of food, or were at least scraping down the last dishes that had some food in them.  Everybody got enough, that was no worry...but that was because the first people, sizing up the situation, took only modest portions. Nobody said anything, but the next time, everybody brought dishes that held more servings.  Then there’s a wedding I remember, where the family decided to serve only hor dourves - which was okay, except the wedding was at 4:30 pm and the reception then about 6-ish. And they didn’t consider hungry young adults just out of college.  By the time I arrived, all the hor dourves had been scarfed down. Nobody said anything, and we had fun anyway; but we all knew that they had tried to not spend too much on it, and it went wrong.

No host or hostess wants to run short on food or drink at a party.  And what I’ve read about middle-eastern wedding celebrations is that they went over several days.  According to what this story in John tells, folks back then saved money by serving the best wines first, when people were sober and noticing more - then as the evening progressed, they served the lesser plonk, as folks would  notice less.

When I read this story about the wedding at Cana, I always wonder who was getting married and why it concerned Jesus’ mother that the hosts were running out of wine early.  Maybe it was the wedding of one of Jesus’ siblings? Maybe a relative? And why did she ask Jesus, of all people? What did she think he could do about it? He hasn’t been doing miracles yet, at least as recorded in the gospels - this turns out to be his first.  Its a strange first miracle, too - not life-threatening or anything ….just a social embarrassment of a host family… although these kinds of things live in communal memory, and family honor is a big deal.

But Jesus takes care of it,  miraculously changing the large casks of water into wine - and not a poor wine, but a great one. The guests probably don't even  know - just the servants, maybe some of the host family, Jesus and Mary. Of course the word will spread! I guess my prejudice shows when I wonder why ensuring a family has enough wine for their celebration is Jesus’ first miracle.  It’s not like curing lepers, or blind folks, or children with epilepsy, or a wild man’s madness. Perhaps it goes along with the miracles of feeding - multiplying the offered food somehow to take care of the crowd’s hunger. Perhaps there’s a connection to the Last Supper, and the elements of bread and wine that become our sacred meal of spiritual nourishment and God’s presence. Perhaps it says that Jesus cares for people’s needs, whatever they are.  The need for family honor here, the need for lunch for people who came out to hear him there, the healing needs from illness both physical and mental. Perhaps it says to us that Jesus cares that there is enough for all - and even abundance. For sure it assures us that Jesus wasn’t an ascetic - he goes to parties and cares about the wine! Perhaps it speaks of God’s generosity to us all. Jesus does seem to be able to mess with matter, and make it do what he wants, which is pretty breath-taking.  

God is certainly a God of abundance, especially if we look at God’s self-expression in creation.  When I started gardening, I quickly realized that I knew very few plant names - even their common names; much less their scientific names.  There are way too many plants for me to know - and new varieties are being made or discovered all the time. There aren’t just one or two nice flowers for nice occasions, or even a dozen nice flowers for variety’s sake - there are zillions of flowers!  And they don’t even have to be planted by us - zillions more grow wild in abandoned lots, or on mountainsides, or in forests. Small, large, shy, flagrant, smelly in a good or bad sense, shade and sun, good soil and poor soil, wet and dry conditions…. There are flowers for them all.  I worked to know names, so I didn’t have to say, “You know, that blue thing that grows in the ditches.” I worked on knowing vegetables, too. And now I’m feeling that way about birds. God’s abundance and variety is amazing. God has set much joy and celebration into creation and life. Jesus certainly has a zest for life, a gift for words and stories, and strong views!  Of course he’d like good wine.

It’s a similar thing when we come to the gifts and talents God has blessed humanity with, or, as 1 Corinthians talks of, spiritual gifts.  We humans have infinite variety within the parameters of physical and mental differences, personalities, talents, abilities, or how our brains work.  Paul reminds the community at Corinth that this diversity is for the common good.   Not for boasting, not for showing off, not for comparing.  We’re not all preachers, thank God. I attend conferences where most folks attending are pastors,...Whew!  Lots of opinionated people who like the sound and authority of their own voice. I often look for conferences that have non-clergy, and even non-churched folks, too.  

There’s a preacher joke - how are preachers like manure?  Answer - all in a pile, they stink, but spread thinly around, they can do good.

Somebody in church needs to be attentive to details, especially in recording about the money.  Somebody needs to be a good planner, another needs to be extroverted and love hospitality, another more introverted person may excel in visiting the sick.  Some teach, some do music, some like research into the details of Bible exposition, some like building and repairing things. Some might be politically to either side of center in order to keep us thinking and praying and pondering.  Some may have a desire for a feeding ministry, another might want to address homelessness, and yet another want to celebrate the beauty of creation through art. Somebody has to know about the boiler, hopefully, and somebody else keeping church records.  Some may have a strong and unquenchable faith during the hard times; someone else may be a problem-solver; someone may be a healer or care about healthcare available to folks. Some may be good speakers while others hate to be up front, but love to cook, or take care of children. Those are just a few examples.

Whatever our gifts, or the interests that grab us, they are given by God, and given for the common good.  God gives the church what it needs and who it needs - and different churches, with different people, develop the ministries unique to their members.  Maybe large churches can have programs for a wide variety of people; other churches develop an identity based on the gifts available.

Churches have some common core needs:  growing in faith, worship, caring, outreach, and fellowship. How a specific church does this can be unique. A pastor can’t come in and tell a church what they “should be” doing, except in that overall view.  A church’s mission and ministry really grows out of its own vision, interests and gifts.

When Indiantown Pres, for example, looks to expand its mission and ministry, what we have to look at, what we have to examine, is what gifts God’s Spirit has given to we who are members here. What passions and visions God has graced us with, we who are the people called here already.  And how they match with community needs, for example. This kind of spiritual discernment takes a lot of prayer, a lot of inner listening, and an open mind - because the Spirit doesn’t say the same ol’ same ol’ to each congregation.

Ocean View Pres, for example, was about this size, and severasl members had a passion for a food pantry.  That passion grew the biggest food pantry in the region, devoting unused Sunday School rooms to large refrigerators which they purchased with grant monies.  Another member there was developing her her skills as an artist, and she started an Art Fair on the church grounds. I remember we considered using our facility as a wedding venue, but the lack of parking nixed that.  The West Plains church joined into community events, having a float at the Christmas Parade and serving hot chocolate; then having a booth at the Old Time Ozark Festival, offering cool water.  That church was 175 years old, and decided to have a Sesquicentennial event of poetry and music for the community. The youth adopted a road that ran by our church to do regular pick-ups of trash along the road.  We also had a bed at the community garden, and devoted the food to a local food pantry.

A church in Norfolk that was largely progressive in their outlook, became known locally as the church that welcomed LGBTQ persons - tthey opened their doors to let parent groups and LGBTQ folks meet there.  Another church in Norfolk had some musicians interested in the contemplative worship and music of Taize, and did a twice-monthly evening service which drew quite a crowd from the community.

I don’t know how many members these churches added because of the outreach programs, but they were still doing mission, giving themselves away in mission to the community.  I do know that the people involved developed their own spirituality and walk with Christ, and the churches had a positive reputation.

I think we have a wrong view of church mission, if we just do it so people will join. And we have a wrong appreciation of church size, if we don’t think there’s anything we can do because we’re small.  Sometimes people join, sometimes they don’t. I don’t know of any church that offers a preschool ministry for the community, for example, that gets more than maybe one family to join, if that. We do ministry and mission because that’s what the Spirit of God pushes us towards in our hearts.  We do it because, as Christians, that’s who we are - compassionate people, helping the suffering, seeking to meet human needs, whether its healing, as in hospitals and healthcare her and around the world; or whether its literacy, as in adult education, English as a second language classes, book groups or art fairs. Jesus, we saw this morning in the wine story, also cared about people’s honor and celebrating as well as feeding and other miracles of meeting people’s needs.  

I’m working on a plan for us to ponder and rethink about what church is according to the Bible, and brainstorm and dream and listen for the Spirit of God moving in our own passions and interests.  I’ll challenge us to increase our prayer life, faith life, and examine our own gifts and nudges towards mission. I plan to start with the Session, and then bring everyone else in. We need to get out of our walls to the community, and open our facility to the community.  Friends, mission, that is, bringing Christ’s love to needy people in whatever ways we can, is foundational to being Christ’s followers. God has work for us to do. We need to pray for it, seek it, and listen for the wind of the Spirit. I can’t promise that folks will come out of the woodwork and flock t us - however, we will be spending ourselves for Christ, and that’s what we do.   AMEN

When You Pass Through the Waters 1/13/19 Epiphany 1C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser 

WHEN YOU PASS THROUGH THE WATERS

1/13/19           Luke 3: 15-17, 21-22          Epiphany 1-C  

There was this tune that kept running through my head when I sat down to work on this sermon. I’d been reading a commentary that said that Jesus got baptized to show he was in solidarity with us humans, which seemed kind of obscure to me.  I heard the tune and then the words came -  “What if God was one of us?”  So an important line like that was enough to run a Google search, and I found it.  What if God was one of us? , the chorus asks.  Just a slob like one of us?   I was kinda awkward with the word ‘slob’....In Michael Jackson’s cover of the song, he used the word ‘slave’. Just a slave like one of us…. Just a stranger on a bus, tryin’ to make his way home.   Its a questioning song, wondering about God, just thinkin’....  What IF God was one of us?

If God had a name what would it be?  And would you call it to his face? If you were faced with Him in all His glory ...What would you ask if you had just one question?

            Suspend what you’ve been taught for a moment, all that you affirm in our confessions, all you’ve learned from Sunday School and accepted - and join in the asking about who God is and what God is like.  Many people in our world, in our country, and probably right around us in our community are skeptical of what church teaches.  Maybe from a bad experience at church, or a church person who turned out irresponsible or even criminal.  Or maybe super strict or punitive.  And they’ve brought the whole message into doubt for those they’ve hurt. 

            And yet people  wonder about God anyway. Movies ponder about God; TV shows ponder about God.   If some folks got it wrong, maybe, somewhere, someone has it right.  I mean, people in  all cultures talk about God somehow.  We seem to have a hunger for God.  What would it be like to call God a name, and to God’s face, the way we do one another?  And if you could ask one question, what would you want to ask?

Bart Millard, of the band MercyMe wrote another song about being in God’s presence from a christian faith perspective - his story got made into a movie, too,,, the song is “I Can Only Imagine”…. Its an intriguing thought, isn’t it?  We have an old hymn called Face to Face that I learned as a child - Face to Face, what will it be?  When in rapture I behold him - older language, of course, similar thought.  What might it be like to actually see God?

If God had a face what would it look like? And would you want to see, if seeing meant That you would have to believe in things like heaven And in Jesus and the saints, and all the prophets?

If I did see God’s face, does it mean I’d have to believe all the church stuff?  That’s an honest question - that’s a lot to shoulder just to ask to see God. People want the experience of an encounter with God, not a bunch of dogma.  To many folks, we’ve made church a big burden to take on.  Does it mean I’ll turn into an intolerant,  right wing, Bible thumper?  I just wanted to see God.  I just wanted the experience of God myself.  I want to know. 

You remember that I started down this train of thought as I was pondering about Jesus being baptized.  I mean, did he really have sins to wash away?  The way we think of Jesus being fully God, how could he sin?  Yet he was also fully human - we forget that part, or think its rather impossible.  Does Jesus’ holiness go way back to his birth and childhood?  Did he really not cry as a baby? That’s actually from the carol Silent Night, you know, not the Bible.  Did he never feel the urge to lie to his parents?  Did he never get carried away having fun and go too far? Is the only way he ever worried his parents that he stayed too long in the Temple?  How about as an adolescent - Did he never notice young woman?  Did he never resent his parents’ rules, and want to escape?  Did he never question what he was taught?  Did he just have all this deep wisdom without suffering for it, the way we do?  Was his whole life just easy and golden?  Up until he started being a prophet, that is….  Just why did he need to be baptized by his cousin John?

Did he do it just to try and say, “Hey, I’m one of you”?  Some people argue that was the reason.  I sure don’t have it figured out! 

I can imagine Jesus struggling with … or against… a growing desire to speak about what he was seeing around him -  the injustice, the greed, the cruelties person to person, the suffering… and struggling to put that next to the vision of God’s kindom that had pressed itself on him.  I can imagine a growing realization over his life that God was important to him, and that the Scriptures spoke a word, a vision of what God wanted - a vision that was a far cry from what he saw in the world.  I can imagine that he came to be baptized as a way of marking that he accepted his call, saying Yes to this new word God wanted  to speak through him.  Perhaps his baptism marks the time he steps into his role as Jesus the Christ.   

If God has a name, if God had a face, if God was one of us - yeah, those questions have been answered - Jesus was the name and the face, and one of us.  That’s the gospel in a nutshell.  If they had had buses back then, Jesus could have been the stranger on the bus making his way back home after after speaking at Temple.

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The more important question, as God walks among us, might be - would I recognize Jesus’ face? Or know his name?  This person speaking about God who seems to counter much that the world assumes as true?  Who even questions our received traditions? Who seems to speak a new word about God, yet a word that harkens back to the very experiences of God of our ancestors?  Who seems to know God intimately?  Might I wonder if this was God speaking?  Or just think he was weird? When he got in trouble with the religious authorities, would I back up from him?  You see,

God HAS walked among humans, and has had a face and name, and spoken face to face with people.  What do I now do with that? 

We might say, Oh, that was long ago, I wasn’t there, I have to trust that the folks who wrote about Jesus didn’t exaggerate, or didn’t make it up. 

Yes, there was a historical Jesus who lived and walked.  Evidently what he said and did awakened people to recognize God’s presence, and eventually change the world.  I mean, the church eventually changed the dating of time into the time before, and the Year of Our Lord, Anno Domini, or AD as we learned to write after historical dates.  (Nowadays people have changed it to Common Era and Before Common Era, CE and BCE)  Western history is intertwined with the story of the Christian church. 

But God isn’t chained to history, my friends.  God IS - God is alive now and all times.  God is in the present, always.  God lives in 2019, and will live in 2020, just a truly as God lived in year 30.  God is among us as truly now as at anytime, historical time or future time.  God’s Spirit is working among us as we worship here, as we shop at Food Lion or Costco, as we go out in the woods to hunt, as we work in our gardens, as we teach school, as we drop clothes at the dry cleaners, as we see clients or patients, as we meet in Session -- all the time.    “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, “ Isaiah says on behalf of God.  And Jesus told his disciples, ‘I will be with you, even to the end of the world.’ 

Jesus also told his followers that when they even gave someone a glass of water in his name -  that is, because of the love implanted in our hearts through Christ - that we are actually offering that water to Christ himself.  When did we see you naked and give you clothes?  When you do it to one of the least of these among you.  Christ is among us and walking this world every day - the question is, do we recognize the face and know his name?  Hundreds to times a day, there is a stranger on a bus making his way home from work….or a tired worker at the cash register…..or a young man in a hoodie….or a rude person in a car…..or a disabled person walking across the street….or a kid on a bike along the road….   They are also people made in the image and likeness of God, and Jesus said that our treatment of them is also our treatment of him. 

I’ll change tact a minute here.  When we are baptized in Christ, we are marking our life journey with a decision to follow Christ.  Those of us baptized as babies or toddlers have been the recipient of our parent’s promise to raise us to know and love Jesus Christ, and our church’s promise as well.  In the Presbyterian tradition, we affirmed our own faith commitment at our Confirmation. Some of us here, raised in a different tradition, responded to God and were baptized at an older age.  Baptism itself doesn’t have a magical quality of salvation - what baptism DOES is mark that time for us - mark us as claimed in the community, mark us as responding to God’s love.  Mark the time time that, like Jesus, we said yes to walking the walk.  That we confirm our agreement  with being that disciple, that follower, that person who sees God everywhere they look, that person who let’s that love of God grow in their heart so that compassion and kindness flow out of our actions to others more and more.  Baptism is an entrance rite, a marker, a declaration of solidarity and intention. 

Today, as we read of Jesus’ own baptism, which precedes his 40 days of solitude in the desert and his three-year ministry, may we remember and reaffirm that we, also, are baptized - may we again pledge ourselves, here at the beginning of a new year, to let God speak through us and use us, to live into that vision of the kindom of God that flowed through Jesus, and to serve God with our lives.  AMEN.

Change Happens 1/6/19 Epiphany C

Rebecca L. Kiser

CHANGE HAPPENS

1/6/19      Epiphany C       Mathew 2: 1-12

There’s an old saying that nothing is certain except death and taxes.  I’d add a couple things...that God is, is certain; and change is certain.  Change Happens.  I got to pondering this when I read the phrase about the magi who came to worship Jesus.  To help preserve the child Jesus, they went home by a different way.  As the situation with a jealous King Herod changed, they changed their plans, and went home by a different way

Change happens.  When my mom was young, the country was in the throes of the Great Depression, and she had to help her father in the garden and help her mother put food up, so she moved herself to the city where she could buy sliced bread and frozen veggies.  She talking about gathering around a neighbor’s window, with all the other kids, to listen on that one rich person’s radio, to a program called The Shadow Knows. Her Christmas stocking had some sweets, an orange and some nuts.  They didn’t have a car.

Contrast that with my young days, when mom and dad both worked outside the home, quickly moving into the burgeoning middle class. My Christmas stocking had toys. Our pantry shelves were full from the grocery store. I didn’t know that pickles were made from cucumbers. We had a car and a TV - black and white at first, then color, and all our relatives came over to see Ed Sullivan in color.    

Contrast that with my kids learning computers in Kindergarten and Elementary school - I signed up as Computer Mom to get some training so I could keep up with my 5 year old.   I can remember the first mall that was built near our house; now they have a choice of malls.  I did Drivers Ed on the brand new Capitol Beltway, I 495, even before my dad did.  Now its a parking lot.  Two of my children choose to not have cars, but use public transportation and Uber.

Change happen.  Our country’s population has grown and grown, and people have flocked to cities - agricultural families are no longer the norm.  An economy based on  the slave labor that enabled plantations to thrive, changed when slaves were freed.  Nuclear families of several generations living nearby are more rare now, as children’s jobs get them transferred around the country, or they move in order to find work.  Every community has its long-term population, but its not really the norm anymore.  People are more transient. 

Change happens.  My father-in-law was loyal to one company for his entire career, then, as he neared retirement, new leadership wanted more profit, so finagled older and well-paid employees out. That has happened so often that loyalty between a company and its workers has ebbed from both sides, as workers seek to protect their interests and companies work for their bottom line.  And there was a time when unions were important for workers to not be exploited by the bosses; together, the workforce had bargaining power and improved their working conditions. My dad and mom came from coal-mining country, where unions were a good thing.  Daddy would never cross a picket line.  But now many leaders run on a platform of union-busting. 

Change happens.  Sometimes change is fun, like vacations, or traveling, or new shoes and clothes, or a new kitten.  Some changes are difficult - like changing the way one eats due to diabetes, or heart problems, or gluten intolerance.  Overcoming an addiction is very difficult, although preserving life and health.  Losing a spouse to death or divorce makes for difficult changes as well.  Changing our negative behaviors and attitudes takes work, too.  Some changes are both exciting AND scary at the same time - like going off to college, or moving to a new house, or starting a new job, or getting married, or retiring.  My son and I were talking about the changes that negative life experiences make in us; changes we never anticipated or imagined.  We both agreed that our younger selves might not even like our current selves! 

Language changes - every year our dictionary adds new words.  “To Google”, used as a verb, is one small example - “Somebody google that,” I’ve said in classes, and everyone knows what I mean, and whip out their smart phones.  Try and read a book from several centuries ago, and note all the words we don’t know anymore!  Some schools now are deciding not to teach cursive writing, but emphasizing “keyboarding” skills. 

Change happens.  The other night I bragged to my younger son that I’d gotten good at playing DVDs on the television, working the buttons and all.  His response?  “People still watch DVDs on their televisions?”  Ooooohhh, cut the momma!

A question on the Facebook group “Happy to be a Presbyterian” came from a mid-life man, asking if anyone else had undergone big theological and faith changes in their lives.  He got lots of affirmations from other folks - most people, as their brains develop, as their lives experiences ups and downs, have to ask questions of their faith, and wrestle to an answer.  Our understanding evolves and grows as we do, as we develop capabilities of reasoning, the insights of reflection, and the exposure to more situations.  Its not that we lose our faith;  its more that our faith morphs somehow into a different understanding as we wrestle with what life throws at us.  Our understanding of Scripture changes, too, as we learn about the difficulties of translations, of the philosophies of different times and cultures and how they heard things; as we have discovered more copies of ancient texts and been able to make more accurate translations.  As Presbyterians, we have the Reformation call that living out our Faith in God is always being reformed.

So why in the world should we expect the way we are church to totally stay the same?  Why should we expect that programs that worked to spread the gospel 50 years ago, will still work in today’s milieu?  Why do we assume people of today will flock to church like the folks raised in a post-World War country did?  

A simple look at church history will show that the church has looked different in different eras.  Always, the church has existed to spread the message of faith through Jesus Christ, to worship God, and to support and nurture faith in one another.  But it has looked different.  The earliest churches were small house churches, where the few converts to the gospel banded together to work out the changes in belief and living.  Those churches were eclectic mixes of Romans, Jews, affluent, starving poor, slaves and sex slaves.  At some point, Christ-followers had to meet in secret, and be careful in their words.  After Christianity became the state religion under Constantine, people converted who really didn’t know what they were pledging.  A system of priests developed, educated men who carried out worship in Latin that no one spoke, and told the less educated people, who stood during the service, what to believe.  Paintings and stained glass windows told the stories.  Pews were an innovation.    Scripture available to be read, for those who could read, was a huge change.  Monasteries were a big change.  The Reformation was a huge change on many levels, theologically, structurally and even in the music - hymns in the local language were written and sung.

Who would have guessed that music to the praise of God could be such a fighting point in churches?  Songs that my generation sang in coffee houses, with everyone who could play guitar joining in, were called ‘unchurchy’ and rebellious.  Now some of those songs are in our hymnals with organ accompaniment. I kind of giggle under my breath when we sing them. Organs may not last in worship, though, as fewer and fewer organ majors are coming out of schools. Not as many people are learning piano either.  Churches who move to contemporary services are actually doing the music people my age grew up on…..

For most of my ministry, I was the first woman pastor people had heard of, heard preach, heard do a wedding or a funeral.  Clergywomen are a big change in the church. 

Not everything about church changes - The focus on Jesus as Christ has not changed.  Scripture is still stressed as important, although not as many people know it well. Nurture of each other remains the same, although its more centered on bodily health than spiritual health.  Something that thriving congregations seem to have in common is their emphasis on mission  - mission in their local community, as well as concern for national and international situations.  These congregations are active in reaching out through programs like feeding, English as a second language classes, clothes closets, prayer shawls or quilts, adopting a local elementary school, using their sanctuary for lectures or concerts, doing community gardens or farmers markets, participating in Relay for Life, hosting yoga classes, hosting 12-step groups, doing a Habitat house, volunteering for Neighbor-to-Neighbor that takes people to dr appointments, ….all kinds of things, according to what their members can handle and are interested in.  We’ve had a couple suggestions here - a calling-tree for elderly or homebound folks; and evening adult classes in various things.  Thriving churches are in their facilities  more than just Sundays, and are also active outside their own walls.

While I am pleased that we at Indiantown keep up with our Mission Pledge through the presbytery, as well as our per capita; and while I am proud of the way we care for one another within our congregation,  I think our challenge is to get involved in caring beyond our walls and beyond our own people. When we listen to those who are hurting, we will get ideas of how to support them and address concerns. 

If we fall more into letting our boundaries shrink, and begin to not see beyond our own walls, and only do what we have always done even if its not working, then we will be in trouble.   Many of the congregations that fold are those who get indrawn and petty.  They argue about letting a mom’s group meet in a room, because the extra heat & lights costs money.   They fuss about letting AA use a shelf for their coffee supplies.  They start fights over how another person runs a committee.  They turn on the pastor and blame him or her.  And then they wonder why no one wants to join!!!   These situations are ones that I’ve seen…..

Indiantown, thank God, is not at that point. We have forward-looking people who can imagine and re-imagine how to move into our future.  As Christ-followers, God’s Spirit can move us into places we’ve never thought of before - if we listen.  The needs in our communities and our world have not decreased…. People are still in need of the grace and forgiveness that Christ gives as each person is valued.  Love and welcome and kindness seem to be waning in our world; the Christian virtues of right relationships between people seem to be fading from practice.  There are winds blowing through our culture that are not consistent with faith in God.  Our witness and message are needed; our hands are needed; our living the faith is needed; the interpreting of the message of Jesus to our time is needed.  The community and fellowship of being Christ’s church could address the need of people whose lives are more and more solitary and far from their families.  Our love for people across racial lines can have a vital impact on local and national levels.  Our care for the poor and the suffering may well be more necessary, given the way the country is going.  Our altruism and compassion from following Christ can be a shining star to many needy people.  Our ministry is needed - how will we respond?