That New Thing God Does (Pentecost 10C)

THAT NEW THING GOD DOES

The Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Aug 18, 2019     Pentecost 10C   Isaiah 43:18-20 

With our young people here from VBS, and with the pictures and songs and energy, its a good day to preach about God saying, “I am about to do a new thing - now it springs forth - do you not perceive it???”  We’re here with the physical reminders that life is renewed, moves forward, is made new in these young people.  They are coming of age in an era different from ours, especially those of us in the 2nd half of life. People are still people, of course, and the laws of nature are still the laws of nature - however, however, their generation faces things that we didn’t, and perhaps don’t comprehend.  AND - As God is still working and speaking in the present NOW, God will guide them.  

The VBS group made a fingerprint tree for me, and presented it during the day of the program about change, as I’ve made a big change in the last few weeks.  There are SO MANY details to take care of in a move! First, I made a trip up here to find a place to live. Then I went back to my former house to finish packing up - lots of work!  Then the movers came to load my things in a truck and carry them here, where they unloaded them to the middle of the floors! Lots of boxes everywhere! Whew! Then I had to find where the grocery stores are, get my TV & wifi  turned on, put my bed together and help my kitty adjust to a new house, too. This week, now that I have the proofs that I need, I can change my drivers license and car registration. Next its finding doctors and a good vet, meeting other area pastors, and so on.

Moving takes a lot of energy- physical energy as well as mental and emotional energy.  

I’m fortunate in that I enjoy being in new places and meeting new people.  I’ve always liked moving, even when I’m sad at leaving at the same time. I find it exciting to be in a new place, meet new people, and start new friendships.  The scenery here looks SO different from where I was near the beach - the land is more hilly here, and the soil isn’t sandy. And its not as hot and humid here, thank goodness!  

Of course, I liked South Carolina, too. I had lots of friends there, and I really do love the ocean.  They do lots of things the same there as here, especially in church, because people are people everywhere.  Some churches were doing the same VBS - ROAR - as we just did! So young people in SC were singing the same songs and doing the same crafts as we did!  Probably young people all over the country know the same songs. I had fun in South Carolina; I had my favorite stores, my favorite doctor, and a nice place to live.  Now I like it here, and I’ve already met some cool new people! I was sad for a while that I was leaving SC...yet at the same time, I was excited about coming here, too.  Both at the same time.

Changes happen, and we find ourselves in new places, and in new situations.  Our VBS buddies helped us remember that, when life is sad, GOD IS GOOD! When life is scary, GOD IS GOOD! When life has changes, GOD IS GOOD!  And finally, when life is good, GOD IS GOOD!  

You know, I’m not the only person who has made changes lately.  Our church here has had a big change, too - Pastor Mark retired from being the preacher here, and I came to be the Interim Pastor. So everybody at church who were SO USED to hearing Pastor Mark preach the sermon, or answer the phone or visit them in the hospital - they are getting used to the change of having me do all that!  Church is “kind of” the same - I mean, we are having VBS like usual, and we have Sunday worship like usual, and we’ll have Thanksgiving and Christmas like usual - the change is that it will be me preaching and doing things. That’s different. But what did we learn at VBS about when things change???? GOD IS GOOD!!! And if people are sad and miss Pastor Mark, GOD IS GOOD!!!

Let me read our passage from Isaiah the prophet again -  its short - 

Isaiah 43:18-20   Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.  I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?   I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people… 

Now, God doesn’t mean that we’re to forget what’s happened before.  In fact, in other places, God says to remember how God did great things, and helped the people who came before us - remembering those things helps us know how God loves us and what great things God CAN do.  Remembering helps us have courage, because God has been so good before.  

HOWEVER, this passage reminds us that God moves along with us in the present, NOW.  God didn’t just help people back then, God helps people NOW! God wasn’t just good back there, God is good NOW.  That’s what God means when it says, “Do not remember the former things or consider the things of old.” Its n ot that we don’t remember the past - its “Don’t get stuck thinking its all over!”  “Don’t get stuck thinking all the good things happened back then!” “Don’t get stuck being sad, although its okay to be sad for a while.” God is good NOW.  

God was good to us when Pastor Mark was here - and God is good to us now, too. And God will be good to us tomorrow, and next month, and next year, too.  We will be fine, because God is good.

What the prophet Isaiah hears God saying is that we need to watch for the new things God is doing in this new time.  It hits me that this might be the message to us adults who are in our 2nd half of life - sometimes we can get stuck remembering how things used to be, because we have lived a lot of years, and have a lot of memories.  We need to be reminded that the present and future still hold promise of God’s goodness. God is always in the present - God might be as old as the whole world, but God is also as new as the newest baby, and the children in VBS, and the young people who helped lead things, and the new parents of those babies.  Maybe God’s words about remembering God’s past goodness are what younger folks need to hear, because mostly they’re looking forward in anticipation. And us older folks, who have lots of past, need to be reminded that there is also have a future.   

We live right between them, in the PRESENT, and this is also where God is working.

Friends, this is good news.  It doesn’t in any way negate or belittle the past, it just reminds us that God is still with us where we are now.  

On a personal level for our Jamesville community, as we begin to look to our present and our future, we’re not taking anything away from how great the past years have been, or how much love was shared, or how much community was built, or how many friendships deepened.  

The good news is that God is here in this new situation; God didn’t stay in the past - God is always in the NOW.  

God says, through the prophet Isaiah, that we need to be looking around to see the new things God is doing, and look for the new ways God is working.  God is always bringing along new leadership to respond to new situations, for example - I never heard of climate changes and global warming when I was younger.  I did hear about pollution back then, but its an ever-growing issue now. God is also working in these next generations to address our welcome of all people, to further bring down racial barriers and increase understanding. We made some progress in the 60s & 70s, and there’s still much to do.   I also trust God is inspiring God’s followers to address the recent surge in hate crimes and hate speech. God is STILL seeking to be known by all people; for people to find forgiveness and restoration in faith, and to grow in wisdom. God is the source of salvation for humanity, and the source of wisdom for us to live together and in harmony with all creation.  God is the cure we need, and thankfully, God is here and caring.

   Isaiah tells of God’s call for us to do our own inner work, so we can perceive where God is, and join God there.  Young and older together, let us keep our eyes open to see God in the NOW. AMEN.

The Land They Left Behind Pentecost 9C

 THE LAND THEY LEFT BEHIND

the Rev. Dr.. Rebecca L. Kiser

Aug 11, 2019 Pentecost C Heb. 11:13-16

You’ll notice that I put the context of this passage from Hebrews in the  bulletin, to set up the reading. The context is important: its the reciting of all the deeds of faith of Hebrew forbears, how all these people whose names & stories came down through Jewish history & Scripture, had hope & trust in God’s promises - and how that hope & trust in God’s promises caused them to act in ways unlike others.  Because they believed God’s promises, they acted on future-oriented faith, & made amazing choices. 

What struck me in my earlier reading of this text was the phrase I chose as the title, which is in this sentence:  If they were thinking of the land they left behind, they would have had opportunity to return.  That is countered by what they WERE thinking of, which is the realm of God - God’s vision, But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; indeed, he has prepared a city for them.   If I were choosing a title today,  I  might choose a title more based on the HOPE of this “better country,”  & how that pulls us, in our present life, into our future. See, HOPE for a future changes our living in the present… It matters whether we’re thinking about what lies behind or what lies ahead.    

Hmmmm… that sounds a little heady…. let’s reflect a minute about practical examples of what I mean.  

When I was a teenager, our VBS was held soon after school let out in early summer.  I was usually involved doing snacks or games, or playing the piano for the singing, so I always missed the first week of summer swim team practice.  I didn’t want to be too far behind the other swimmers, so the coach wrote up a workout for me to do in the afternoon or evening. Because I wanted to swim well, I came to the pool later in the day after VBS and did it.  I enjoyed summer swim team, and wanted to be a lifeguard, so I attended practices, and found rides until I was old enough to drive.  I did what I needed to do in order to reach that goal of lifeguarding, even coming out for practice on the cooler and rainy mornings when it would have been  more fun to sleep in than to dive into cold water.

Another swimmer named Kitty had some pretty good race times, and had thoughts of the Olympics in her head.  The future she looked towards was a lot more demanding, so Kitty swam all year, and had a private coach. Our practices in the morning for summer swim team were just a warm-up for her.  Her swimming goals took up lots more time and energy out of her days. It cost her parents a pretty penny, too. What Kitty and I each wanted to do in our future made a difference in how we acted in our present, in how our time, energy and money were spent. 

See, if we value making A’s in our classes, we put in the time studying in the days we have.  If we have a future dream of being a doctor, say, we take the classes for pre-med, and know that the next years are going to be full of even more school, residencies and such.  What we hope for makes a difference in how we spend our current days.  

That we believe it is important to worship God and be gathered with other Christ-followers is why we’re each here today on Sunday morning, and not sipping a latte or caramel macchiato at Starbucks while walking slowly around a lake somewhere, like our neighbors.  Our trust in God’s promises about living in us and our hopes of growing in our spiritual lives, are what make us choose to read our Bibles and pray about people and events in our daily lives; what makes us care about showing love to others, being honest, and other moral values within Christianity.    

         Abraham & Sarah, who we mentioned last week, found the courage to step out and follow what God called them to do - a radical leave-taking, and a radical trust in God for their future.  Their HOPE & TRUST in this promise from God, gave them the incentive to uproot themselves & move forward. In their present, they stepped into the future HOPE.

     Again with Moses, who gathered those many descendents of Abraham & Sarah in order to make a huge exodus from Egypt where they had been enslaved, we see all those people going out on a desert journey - a huge undertaking, a huge task that might seem illogical & doomed. Again, they went because of a HOPE & TRUST in what God said & promised. They stepped out of their past & into their future, because of what they envisioned. 

And so with the others mentioned in Hebrews 11. They all died without ever seeing the fulfillment of the promises & the vision - but that vision from God carried them throughout their lives. 

Without that vision, if they had just simply continued in the view of life that they had, they probably would have been alright, but it wasn’t the future that God was calling them into.  And if they had continued remembering that former life, the life of the country they left, well, they could always have returned. We’ll read a few places where they DID whine about what they left….   But basically Moses led them and they held onto the vision, & that made all the difference. 

     So it matters, you see, what our vision is.

     

As an Interim Pastor, or, as we’re being called now “Transitional Pastors,” (vs Settled Pastors), I’ve worked in a congregation that just couldn’t let go of how it used to be in the heyday they remember, when the pews were full & Sunday Schools overflowed the room available, & happy, & upwardly mobile families of 2 parents & some kids all flocked to church. That was in the 50s, when our country was pulling itself together after the upheavals & uncertainties of 2 World Wars, and the long history and stability of the church fed that need. 

      This specific congregation hoped to recreate that past, sentimentalizing the way things were & putting a golden, nostalgic glow around those times. They kept remembering ‘the land they left behind,’ as it were, and were unwilling to look around at the needs of their community now.  Of course they were also angry at the changes over the last 50 years, angry that they were shrinking, angry at the differences and angry that the clock wouldn’t turn back. Only a few of them began to form a vision for their future that was different from the past; only a few were willing to step out and risk for a new vision. And they were blocked by the others from taking any forward steps.   While I loved those people & prayed for their lives & worries, I also prayed for their eyes of faith & their spiritual sight. It was frustrating to minister there, because of the unwillingness to let go of the land they left behind, and turn forward. 

Okay, here’s a hokey illustration, but all the same, it IS an illustration.  My cat Mr B used to escape to the outside at my former house, when I opened the garage to get the car out.  When I couldn’t catch him, he got to spend some time outside, which he liked. Now that we’re in an apt and townhouse complex, he has to be on a leash to go out.  So we’re learning the leash thing, which he is willing to do because he wants to go outside. He’s still very tentative outside in our new place - I’m sure it smells different and looks different.  He stops and sniffs, looks closely at everything, then moves. I can tell he’s tense, because the other day when the air conditioning unit started up, he literally jumped 4 feet in the air and did flips.  He totally freaked! I admit that I laughed at the poor scared thing, but then comforted him. He ran for the door, panting. Stepping out into new stuff can be scary.  

Now this congregation here in Jamesville doesn’t seem to be bound to a vision in the past, which I’m glad for.  I feel a forward-looking energy in the folks I’ve talked with so far. This is a positive thing. I also know that a time of uncertainty is a legitimate part of grieving, and a part of this transition. And after so many years of security with a good pastor & good leadership, new stuff can be scary. (As long as no one jumps 4 feet in the air and turn flips!)  Jamesville Community Church has a good history, and good strengths to draw on. We don’t have to be fearful. 

      At transitional times, we may feel the lack of balance for a while, and have to hold still and look around at the new vista, like my poor Mr B.  Things that used to be ‘business as usual’ may feel different now. Yet transitional times can also be a positive time of taking stock, remembering the original vision & even honing that vision.  We may discover how the Holy Spirit can tweak our vision for church with the new situations around us. We can listen to the ideas of upcoming leaders. Perhaps God will lead us to redirect & refine some emphases; and perhaps take on some new directions.  Transitional times are a good time for all of this.  

It’s not overnight, of course - it’s a gradual thing. It takes time to work through all the feelings, to say a good goodbye, to feel & respect our feelings; we need to complete one step before taking the next. 

The challenge from this chapter of Hebrews - - or better, the invitation from this chapter of Hebrews, is to stay rooted in our faith in God that calls us forward into the vision of God’s realm and God’s promises. The invitation is to remember who we are & whose we are, & what we are called to do and be. We can hear again the assurances of Jesus that “I will be with you, even until the end of the age,” as well as the call of Jesus to “follow me.”  These will be firm ground under our feet even if other places feel wobbly. God has been faithful in the past - God will be faithful in the present and the future. May the visions that God puts in our hearts call us forward into our future. Let us walk in that faith. AMEN.

On Setting Out Not Knowing - Getting to Know each Other 8/4/129

ON SETTING OUT NOT KNOWING – GETTING TO KNOW ME!

1^ST Sermon at Jamesville Community Church

8/4/19

Hi, Jamesville congregation!  I’m pleased that God saw fit to have your search committee and I find each other.  This is the first time in my pastoring life that a search committee approached my instead of me approaching them first!  I’d been asking God why this happened to other clergy and not me - usually I have to read forms and inquire, and read more forms and inquire - the way your search committee contacted me felt real nice. We seemed to click right away, which also felt good.  They’ve been real helpful in telling me about this congregation, how you do things, and some of your history.

I know that you are grieving (as well as celebrating) the retirement of your previous pastor, who ministered here for 22 years.  The length of his service here points out how well you got along, and I’ve heard many good things about his ministry here.  This kind of stability is good for a congregation.

It also means that a new pastor is a big change... There might be some anxiety about what’s going to happen next and who the next pastor will be and what she or he will be like.  It looks to me like your leadership folks have stepped up and begun taking care of things, searching for an Interim pastor (me); keeping VBS going and such.  That’s good! And the Presbyterians have specialized training for Interim pastors, and steps to move forward that have been helpful for other congregations.  It was insightful of your leadership to choose this Interim process after a long pastorate.  It takes a while to say goodbye; and like any grieving, it takes a while to look again to the future.

My overall goal is to begin by learning how you are used to doing things, so your comfort level doesn’t get totally messed up.  For a while, just me being up here and not Rev Mark is enough of a visual change!  I might be around his same age group, but I’m not his gender!  Another goal is to be sharing parts of my story so I’m not such a stranger, and sharing something about this journey that we’ll be on for the next year or so.  . 

Let me tell a story – I like stories.  Some years back, I was the Hunger Action Coordinator for the Presbytery of Eastern VA, and  I shared an office with a man from Congo, who coordinated mission between our presbytery and our partner churches in Congo.  Billy, a 17 yr old young man who was actually born in the US and therefore a citizen, was repatriated to the U.S. during some bad times when we closed our embassy in the Congo; and his parents sent him to my office partner, Mr. Bota-Tshiek.  I had a new house with an extra room, and Mr Tschik didn’t, so Billy came home with me for a few nights until a permanent place could be found for him.  A couple weeks later I had to become his guardian in order to put him in school.  He lived with us for his junior and senior year and then we helped him get into college; and now we’ve watched him get working, get married, and become a dad.  ANYWAY – Billy found comfort that first year with the exchange students - they shared the changes of being in America, speaking English & being away from the familiar.  However, come spring, they all went back home – and Billy didn’t. That’s when the reality of his new life set in for Billy, and he went through a rough time.  I read that somewhere around the end of the 1^st year a person is in a new country, they bottom out; they realize the changes they’ve struggled to make are just the beginning, and that there’s still more subtle differences out there.  Depression and even suicide rise at that point for those who have changed country, especially if they are alone.

This process is common to all kinds of transitions.  There’s the initial change, then there’s dealing with it long term.  Feelings of disquiet, maybe even anger rise up – where are they from?  Often it’s the growing sense of how much is actually different now. So don ‘t be surprised at the feelings that might rise up as we go on – we will handle things together.

.

When I was buying my first house, my realtor told me in advance that there would be at least 3 times when I called him up in a panic, maybe crying; and I should remember that he forewarned me.  So one day I got agitating about all the extra papers I was being asked for re the mortgage, and I freaked out and called him up anxious and crying about if this was ever going to work.  Ah, yes….And how did he comfort me????  “Remember I told you about the 3 times? Well, this is #1.”  Believe it or not, that actually helped…I laughed, and then we proceeded to do what was needed.

I guess that’s my foretelling of our next era here – while we are working on plans and self-studies, there’s more going on under the surface, emotions that will bubble up out of us now and then in unexpected feelings and reactions.  Its part of the process.  Part of my task is to recognize it and remind us.

I chose to begin in our first worship together with the very basic story of our faith tradition, way back there with our ancestors Abraham and Sarah, who heard God say, “Get up and move to this place I’ll show you.”  And surprisingly, they did.  No Allied Van Lines, no U-Haul, no move coordinators – they packed up their tents, took their cattle and goats and whatever else they had in terms of critters, their herders and such, and in the end took a nephew’s group, too. And they all set out for a new land.  That journey starts in our first Scripture book, Genesis, which means “Beginnings.” Or, “How it all got started.” Our whole faith tradition starts with a big transition! A leaving, a setting out for a new place.  They left the familiar, the known, the usual, and took off - because God said to.  Its counted as faith, the letter to the Hebrews says – because they believed God, trusted God, and did what God directed.

Can you imagine the changes they must have encountered?  The way the Scriptures were recorded and remembered, not much is said about how people felt - just a bare recital of what happened.  We can tell the emotional toll, however, by some of the things that happen, the stories of grumbling and complained that Moses deals with, with God’s help.  Hundreds of years later, their progeny moved to Egypt and found refuge there in order to avoid a terrible famine.  Then more hundreds of years later, their progeny left Egypt led by Moses, still looking for that land of promise.  That’s the story called the Exodus, a major story of salvation for our Jewish sisters and brothers.  All kinds of changes fill our Scriptures!  Change happens.

I like the way its put, that they “set out not knowing” - not knowing what would happen, not knowing where this land of promise was, not knowing how God’s promises would ever be fulfilled, not knowing if they could handle everything… When I ponder that phrase, “to set out not knowing,” it seems to me that this is actually true of most anything we begin - we are always “setting out not knowing.”  Its a kind of archetypal experience of many things in our living.   I mean, how many of us went to college knowing what we’d be like at graduation?  Knowing how classes would change us, challenge us, broaden us?  And when we found that special someone and committed to them, how many of us knew or even anticipated everything that marriage was going to call for from us?  What we would learn?  What kind of situations we would encounter and weather?  And when we delighted over our babies, – did we even have a clue how that would change us?  When my daughter became pregnant with her first, I really didn’t know how to find the words to express the inner changes, the self-awareness, the challenges….  So many places in our lives we “set out not knowing.” 

Again, when we first profess our love for God and take those early steps in faith, it’s the same thing - we don’t know what God has in store for us, or where the Holy Spirit will actually take us.  We have to take the journey as it comes, listening to the Holy Spirit regularly, and continuing to trust that God is with us and upholds us.  I sometimes wonder what my 18-year-old self would make of who I am at 65, and what life and God have worked in me.  I never foresaw what my life would hold.   

Its the same with our transitions like this, when a pastor retires and we set out not knowing what or who or how - yet we know and trust God, who is with us.  We’ve had a nice settled time for quite a while. What’s going to happen? Will attendance stay good during the transition, or will people pull away until they see who comes?  Will giving stay good? Will VBS continue?  Will our council meetings be the same?  Will we know the hymns and songs she chooses?

We do have some choices in the matters – we can let the anxiety rule us, or we can trust in the process and in the good people around us.  We can decide to be faithful in our attendance and giving, and participate in the upcoming processes of discernment.  We can pitch in, in a good spirit, to keep things going, and communicate clearly with one another.  We can encourage and pray for our leadership.

We are now on a journey together, seeking out where God will lead us.  That’s actually true all the time, although its more overt at transitional times.  We’re actually adapting and tweaking changes all the time; although again its more overt at pastoral transitions. Unlike Abraham and Sarah, we do have a path of sorts, some signposts and steps; although our journey will be our own.  The covenant we made in my call to Jamesville Community Church named some of those signposts – they have names like Coming to Terms with History, Discovering a New Identity, Allowing New Leadership, and Renewing Denominational linkages.  There are known helpful ways of addressing each of these, and our colleagues in faith will be with us all the way.  Other congregations have been down this path, have been there and done that.  We will be okay.  And no matter what, God is always with us, guiding us, speaking to us, leading us to where we are supposed to go.  I was glad when Fred mentioned that my first Sunday with you would be communion - what better promise of love and fellowship and belonging is there as we set out?  AMEN.

My Favorite Scriptures & Last Thoughts (at Indiantown Presbyterian Church) 7/21/19

MY FAVORITE SCRIPTURES & LAST THOUGHTS

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

July 21, 2019   Last Sermon at Indiantown Presbyterian Church

            I wanted our last Sunday together to be something rather different, so after some consideration, I decided to share some of my favorite prayers, songs and Scriptures today.                   

            At a presbytery meeting back in MO, I was tasked with presenting a man who was retiring, and I was to ask him one question before all his friends began to speak.  He looked a little nervous as I called him forward, but as I asked my question his face broke out in a big smile.  I asked him, “Is there a special Scripture that has stayed with you and been important in your spiritual life over the years? “  His answer was ready on his lips before I finished asking. 

I like to ask about people’s spiritual lives.  Sometimes I’ve asked new pastors moving into our presbyteries, when we get to ask questions,  What is something that their prayer life is working on in their hearts now?  See, I believe faith is a life-long journey, and there’s always something percolating, always as edge, always a growth happening.  And not just for preachers - for anyone with a vital spiritual life. 

So in hopes that it will spark some reflection in each of us here, I'm sharing some of my memories, and scriptures, that moved along my own faith journey with God.  In a recent article by Barbara Brown Taylor, she mentions a Sunday School song that captured her imagination as a young person, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.  Red, brown, yellow, black and white, they are precious in God’s sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world.” She credits that song with giving a foundation for her anti-racism work as an adult.  See, sometimes certain teachings hit fertile soil; like Jesus’ parable, sometimes the seeds fall on good soil & stick with us.

Philippians 2:13    

If I were asked that same question as I asked that retiring man, my verse would be Philippians 2:13, where the apostle Paul tells those early disciples at Philippi that its God who is at work in them, enabling them to both will and to work for God’s good pleasure.  Its not a verse many people memorize, yet the Holy Spirit spoke to me as a teenager with those words, reassuring me that even the desire to do what God asks, even the will to do it, shows that God is alive and working in me - and in us.  See, I have always had almost impossibly high standards for myself.  What I took in from my home church was a fear-based faith, where God was watching and counting and ready to judge and punish.  Obedience was expected, and disobedience was punished.  I was determined to be a very good girl and avoid punishments, of which I was afraid, as it was often severe.  Yes, I heard the words about mercy and grace in church, but that only meant that God had provided a way for me to not go to hell, if I would accept it and live right.  I didn’t know much about forgiveness except it was necessary to go to heaven.  So I rather overdid things in the fearful  obedience quarter, searching out minutiae to follow punctiliously.  I was upset that I couldn’t keep all of my good intentions like praying constantly or even getting up early to have my devotion time.  I didn’t like everybody, either, although I tried to see the best in them.  So I was constantly tied up in knots of fear in my insides.  

Reading this verse, that said even the will to please God was evidence of God working in me, was so reassuring.  It was mercy and grace that God was okay with me even when my goals fell short of achievement.  It was forgiveness for when I thought I fell short.  I could relax and breathe.  When I later read about Martin Luther’s almost obsessive confession of minutiae, and the relief he found when the words hit him that salvation was given by grace through faith, I understood.  According to the story, he was mounting up steps to a shrine, and doing it on his knees, when the words hit him, and he stood up and went back down - no need for all the supererogatory works - salvation was by faith. (Although I do like the book of James, which Luther wanted removed from the Bible…)  

This verse remains among my most treasured Scriptures.  I still desire deep in my heart that my life be pleasing to God, and that I continue to learn to live in the kindom of God and show it to the world - and at the same time, its not fear-based, because I will fall short most of the time. 

Galatians 3:28

            I preached on Galatians 3:28 a few weeks ago, the Scripture where Paul waxes eloquent about how in Christ we are all new creations, and writes, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”  Its a manifesto of the radical equality of worth of all people, in the eyes of God.  When we come to Christ and become a part of that new creation, that new body of Christ called the church, things that used to divide us disappear, as we are all now one in Christ Jesus.  Everyone counts, no type of person is higher or better or more important.  I spoke in that sermon about how this Scripture became the reason I found the courage to attend seminary, albeit I was provisional, telling myself that if these Presbyterians were too weird, and their theology too different, I could always leave.  Instead I felt like that ugly duckling in the story, who finally found her place, and rejoiced. 

            It was this scripture that the Holy Spirit used in my heart to make me realize how broad God’s love was, and how it encompassed the whole of humanity.  I mean, I’d always thought that God came for the world, I just never fleshed out what that might look like in dealing with different groups of peoples.  My home church sent mission workers around the world so other countries could hear about Jesus; it just never occurred to me that then they would be my equal.

            I grew up in and near Washington DC, and was there in the time of the Poor People’s campaign, and the angry riots that tore through town as repressed peoples began to feel their own anger at the injustices.  We got the Washington Post, and it was on our nightly news, when Martin Luther King Jr was shot, and later the Kennedys.   My parents and their friends were not overtly bigots, they just were okay with treating people differently if we were nice about it…. I guess my initial application of this scriptural equality was racism; then later I saw the implications were there also about genders.  My awareness of the radical extent of the apostle Paul’s vision was gradual; and the verse continues to be a cornerstone in my theological ponderings.

 

Hebrews 11:8-9

            The story of Abraham and Sarah being told by God to leave their land and go to a place God would show them is a story from way, way back in our faith ancestry.  Its what began the whole story of the Jewish people, with God’s covenants and promises, and deep metaphors of wandering in deserts, holy mountains, ten commandments, and Promised Land.  In the book of Hebrews, in chapter 11, which we call the “faith chapter,” Abraham and Sarah start the list of those who showed faith - “By faith Abraham (and Sarah - I always add her) obeyed when they were called to set out, not knowing where they were going.”  The writer of this letter to the Hebrews says that this obeying is the essence of faith - they believed God, and it was counted to them at righteousness.  Even thousands of years before Jesus. 

            One of my early sermons was titled “To Set Out Not Knowing,” because that phrase captivated me.  I imagined Abraham getting his household ready and leaving his homeland, going out into who knows what, just because God said to.  I mean, I like to know the destination, and I like maps - or, to be more up-to-date, I like gps and map apps.  I’ve eventually learned to like wandering, and surprises, and being more laid back, but I was an uptight young person - control was a big thing.  I like plans, and I like for them to work out.  Usually I had backup plans B and C as well.  It frustrated me no end when D or E happened, and I was not prepared.  One of my favorite lines in the movie Ordinary People was when the therapist says to the client, “Control is gonna cost you extra.”  Like his client, I didn’t like the way life could change with one phone call from the doctor, a knock on the door at night, an accident that could change the course of one’s life in a second.  I didn’t like the insecurity of feeling that I was not in charge, that my plans didn’t necessarily work, that things happen to people.  That we can do the right things, set everything up well, and BOOM - a hurricane blows through and my security disappears as the illusion it really was. 

            Because in life, we always “set out not knowing,” just like Abraham and Sarah.  Who knows at the start of college what is actually going to happen to us in those 4 years, and the different person we will be afterwards?  Who gets married knowing what the years will bring?  Who has kids knowing how its all going to turn out?  We might think we do, we might make plans and head certain directions, which is good, but they aren’t ever written in stone.

 None of us really know where our faith journey with God will take us, either.  Our assurance has to rest on the continuing presence of God despite what happens along the way.  Our trust has to be that God is with us, and will see us through.  I often try and picture my 18 year-old self meeting my 65 year-old self….. My 18 year old self would think I was a heathen, and pray for me with deep concern  to get right with God!  My early self simply could not imagine the path God has taken me on. 

Well, there are lots more Scriptures I could talk about, and I could go on at length, but we all want to get to the River Days party…. So I’ll close with Luke 1:38….

Luke 1:38

            Many of my clergywomen colleagues looked into the Bible for stories about women, and what is told of women in the history of our faith ancestors.  Most of us didn’t know what to do with the picture of Mary, a woman central to the gospel story of Jesus, because we’d grown up with a certain view of her in our patriarchal churches.  She was held up as the epitome of the subservient virgin, the “good” version of being female, versus the, ah I’ll choose the word 'promiscuous' and 'carnal' version of being female.  Girls were exhorted to be like Mary and not like those pushy feminists who were anti-family and godless.  All those negative projections thrown onto a woman who didn’t fit the subservient and virgin stereotype!    

Mary had to be re-examined with my new eyes.  I had an additional problem with Mary, as my upbringing was so virulently anti-Roman Catholic, where we were told people actually prayed to Mary! and other saints! as if she were God!  Clergywomen set out to rework our understanding of Mary, who had been interpreted to us out of a culture that wanted to prove its understanding of women as inferior, or who knew their place. 

One Christmas I decided to do a sermon about Mary, and the verse in Luke 1 changed my perception of her forever - she says to the angel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Suddenly I saw her deep and true faith, just like Abraham and Sarah’s faith, that she believed God and simply followed what God asked.  No fighting it, no wrestling with it, no trying to run away from it like the prophet Jonah, no despair over it like the prophet Elijah….  She simply accepted what God said, and dealt with the consequences.  Wow.  She seemed to summarize what I see as faith, to simply accept what God says, and live it.  Would that I could be as believing of what God says!  

There was a parishioner in my WI church named Mary, who was having babies at about the same time I was.  I confided some of my fears to her, about how I would handle it if my baby had problems.  She answered simply, “I figure if God gives me that to deal with, then God will also give me the grace to handle it.”  I was silenced; all my worrying and agitating at not being in control of all this was shown up by her faith.  Who was the minister here???  Its a foundational trust in God to be sufficient, to be present, to be for us.  Then while I was actually in labor with my son who was arriving rather early as far as due dates are concerned, Mary’s presence sat with me - both Marys. That night I learned why Mary has been so important to women through the ages - I thought, flippantly, “Mary did this in a barn.”  I thought more seriously, “I wonder if Mary worried that something might happen to her baby?” Childbirth has always carried risks for both mothers and babies.  I thought about the phrase, “when her time was fulfilled,” as a description of the onset of labor, and I thought about seminary profs trying to explain the difference between chronos time (ie clock & calendar time) and God’s kairos time - ie whenever, when the time is right…. They should’ve used the illustration of labor and delivery.  I wondered who my firstborn child would be and what he might do for the world.  Probably not a lot of women think about theology and scriptural words when they’re in labor…, but I bet we all think about these same issues. 

I’ve continued to like this Mary.  I’ve learned a lot from her.  

Isn’t it interesting how God continues to speak through Scriptures, and to all parts of our lives?  Isn’t it cool the way God’s Spirit makes these ancient Scriptures live again in our hearts?  These kinds of interactions with God through the Scriptures, these kinds of realizations and growths in our human lives - this is something that is available to each of us as we listen, read, ponder and seek.  Its among the ways God speaks to real life and continues to speak in each generation.  The journey of Christian faith is full of surprises, turns, illumination, and grace. As I leave you all here in Indiantown to go minister somewhere else, I leave with you my best prayers and hopes for a flourishing of your spirits and your life in Christ.  AMEN.

Recognizing Our Neighbors 7/14/19 Pentecost 5C

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

RECOGNIZING OUR NEIGHBORS

7/14/19   Pentecost 5C

A preacher asked on a clergy Facebook site, “Did your seminary teach you that Jesus is the Good Samaritan, or that Jesus is the good innkeeper?” The question got a lot of replies, because the common lectionary for this Sunday is what we just read, the parable of the good Samaritan, and many congregations are hearing sermons on it today!!!.  Some answerers noted that interpretation of the parables has become a lot more fluid these days, and that most interpreters have moved beyond assigning each element of the story a particular meaning (ie the allegorical method).  Parables are meant to make us think, …reflect, ….and ponder. Where we are in our lives can affect whether we see ourselves as the guy left by the side of the road, beaten up and ignored; OR whether we see ourselves as taking on the role of the good Samaritan because we see suffering all around us, we know what it’s like, and we cannot help but respond; OR perhaps we see ourselves as the innkeeper, caring for people after the immediate crisis is addressed.  Rarely will we immediately see ourselves as the religious bad guys, although at some point we may confess it.  So usually there is no one right interpretation of a parable - the Holy Spirit may move our heart in different ways at different times.   Like I said, it’s kind of fluid.

I thought it might be interesting to share other perspectives of sermons I’ve heard about this parable, from people in other places in their lives and who have come to this text identifying with the various characters  - and so seen other things in this story. 

I heard a man take the perspective that we are like the guy beaten up and left for dead by the things we’ve suffered and endured in the world.  We may be wrecked by our failures in our sins, OR beaten up by the competition for position in power in this world, OR overlooked because of some kind of difference or disability, OR at the end of our ability to cope with a significant loss and grief.  There are surely times when we have each felt this way.  I have - several times, and for different reasons.  Things that happen to us can be devastating, and we can see no way forward.   Then a totally unlikely person says or does something that starts us on our way to healing.  That’s what happened in my own story, when I felt my ministry and life were over, and I was invisible to others, left alone. My sister offered me to come live with her.  We had not had a good relationship since we were teenagers, so I did not expect this kindness from her.  She had an extra room and she offered it, so I had a place to live while I regrouped and recovered. She was my Good Samaritan.  Then I found additional caring people in a local church, who nurtured me and saw good in me yet.  I guess they were the innkeepers for me.  Think for a moment about a time when you were suffering and devastated - who was your Good Samaritan, your innkeepers? 

            Another good sermon I heard emphasized the fact that a person from Samaria, a Samaritan, was not considered a good person by the original hearers of this story.  Those hearers would have been shocked to hear a story where the dreaded Samaritan was actually a good guy - an unexpected person to do a good thing.  A person from Samaria, to the first hearers of Jesus’ story, was a half-caste, a person whose parentage was a mix of Jew and something else - they had intermarried, not kept to their tribe.  I’ve read that after the Korean war, the children fathered by a white American GI with a Korean woman was an outcast there - neither fish nor fowl, not pure.  I imagine that’s been so after other wars as well.  The first interracial children in this country were not accepted well, either. 

            Of course, there are other reasons why certain people would be considered surprising heroes - say, a person who looked like a stereotypical gang member, for example, would be an unlikely helper in our modern version of the story. We’d likely be scared if a person like that stopped to help us when our car broke down - male or female - people of whom our expectations and our stereotyping lead us to see as unlikely to act caringly.  In the same way, people who we would expect to be caring, according to their professions and our stereotypes, cross the street to avoid the man.  A religious professional, for example, we would expect to be caring - but think of the times a battered woman has come to her pastor for help and told that God wants her to go back and submit to her husband.  Think of the children abused by a priest or a pastor.  Criminals use the assumption we make about their niceness and normalcy and okay dress, to take advantage of others all the time. 

            To help us ponder the 2 that passed by, I recalled that in one of my Brother Cadfael mystery novels (by Ellis Peters), there was a murdered pastor who demonstrated this kind of disregard of hurting people.  One event that gave his parishioners reason to dislike him involved a couple with a sick newborn, who came to him to baptize the baby quickly before it died.  But the priest wouldn’t go until he completed his prayer time - and by the time he got there, the child had died.  Then he wouldn’t bury it in the sanctified ground.  He chose his own personal holiness over the needs of this family, which is probably what the two religious folks in the story did, too - on their way to Jerusalem, they were most probably going for religious rituals, and had to stay away from blood and death, which would make them ritually unclean.  Their own religious practices kept them from a compassionate response.

            If we think this is only in stricter religious systems than ours, let me tell you about a pastor in Charleston who told me about a parishioner who objected to their custodian joining the church, saying that he wasn’t like them and should find his own church with others like himself.  I think about the way I am fearful of speaking out about the awful way our sisters and brothers at our country’s borders are being treated, and how it hurts my heart to see the lack of compassion shown to them ---I keep myself from expressing what my heart says in fear that I will be reviled or labeled a radical, and all my Scriptural insights ignored.  I think about the way we are fearful of prison ministries, or of going into rough parts of town. 

A commentator on this passage suggested that the church is to be the innkeepers after God has reached out to those in need, and the Spirit has moved them to seek healing from God.  That is, that the church is where God sends the broken and the suffering, like the Samaritan man left the beaten up guy at the inn, and paid for his care until he came again.  The church is where the healing continues, which may be a pretty good look at the church and our ministry. It asks us to look at the people who come to us in a different way – not to see them as ‘giving units,’ not to look at them as somebody who will bring us some prestige. But rather to see people who come to where churches is God sending them there for the kind of care they need to heal, and therefore asking us to do the work of a healer or provide the work of healing whether we are the healers or not.  See, the innkeeper was a person of business, not necessarily a doctor him or herself. But the Samaritan left enough money and left orders that this person be taken care of until he returned, and the innkeeper could certainly use that money to find the resources that the guy needed. So then the church would be a place of resources for healing, various resources i.e. support for finding addict fighting addictions, support  for turning her life around, support for trying to change bad habits and hurtful attitudes, love and acceptance for those the world rejects and who are tempted to end their lives and suffering.

So there’s a few different takes on that parable.

For myself, this time around I noticed that Jesus doesn’t really answer the lawyer’s question. The lawyer, who is probably a religious scribe, tries to nail Jesus down on this “love your neighbor as yourself” thing, like, how do we get an A+ in neighborliness?  What are the details?  Who exactly do you mean?  What exactly do I need to do to keep this law?  Jesus has just stated that the whole Law of Moses is summed up by “love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”  Its a summary statement about the purpose behind the content of the Law of Moses. This guy, though, wants to nit pick details when Jesus is talking heart attitude and mind attitude.

People today are no different. Rules are an easier way to determine compliance than saying we need to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That’s too nebulous for us sometimes - when we have to determine our own heart and evaluate it.  Just about any church I’ve been in, I’ve had somebody come up to me and ask, “So does God want me to tithe on my net income or my gross income?” Like giving to God is kinda like taxes, with deductions and loopholes. That’s begging the question – in Jesus’ view we give to God because of our love and our gratitude, and because we know that everything we have comes from God in the first place, and there’s no higher good that we can do with the blessings that God has given us. And the idea of a 10th, or a tithe, is a concept from under the law of Moses - and that Law is summed up by Jesus in loving God with our whole being. No details are given.  Some people adopt the concept of a tithe because its measurable - but then it becomes a rule they can argue about.

            People have also asked me, “How many times a month do I have to go to church?” The answer from scripture Old and New Testament together is that we would rather be in the house of the Lord than anywhere else! That gathering to give God praise and worship wherever two or three are gathered together, is pure joy. It can’t be quantified or qualified. The only instruction I recall reading from the New Testament is the challenge to, “forsake not the assembling of yourselves together;” beyond that its not defined either. 

            See, Jesus change the emphasis in his answer - he moves the emphasis from what are called the jots and the tittles of the Hebrew text - which are like the serifs on our type fonts, like what makes Times New Roman look different from Arial, those little teeny decorations on the strokes of a letter.  Those teeny details are not the point, Jesus says - I want your heart transformed by love, by compassion, until you feel the suffering the way God does, and you want to respond as God does. 

Jesus wants to give us a vision of the kindom of God; he wants our imaginations opened to a way to live that God actually intended and desires as best for us, rather than the way we see around us.  Our imaginations have to see beyond what we accept in this world, to the way things could be if we lived into that vision of God’s kindom.  God’s ways and values have to be brought into the messy middle of life here, and not just pushed over on the side for church and Sundays.  (This is based on Bonhoeffer’s writings)

So to get back to our parable! The guy asks his picky question, but Jesus doesn’t give into the temptation to try to define. Instead he tells a story, and at the end of it he asks the lawyer guy to see for himself which one of these acted as a neighbor.  See, Jesus wants us to recognize for ourselves what a neighbor does, and then our own answer will lead us - or convict us, as may be.  Jesus take the question about who is our neighbor, and turns it back on us,  to ask, “Are YOU a neighbor to the hurting and suffering?  What do YOU do when you see the suffering people around you?”

This is a timely question - it probably always is, actually.  It is not a political question except in the sense that all Jesus’ teachings have political implications.  Its inescapable - we can’t preach Jesus without it having implications for our own settings and situations. 

Friends, as believers in God through Jesus Christ, we belong to Christ’s kindom ahead of any national realm - we are citizens of heaven, living out the will of God in a world that is run by various governmental styles.  Consider the current item in the news about all the families and children seeking to make a better life in this country - this parable from 2000 years ago asks us what a neighbor would do when seeing suffering people.  Its not a Democrat, Republican or Independent party thing - its a compassionate neighbor thing. God’s heart is always with the suffering and the wronged. So this parable is a challenge to us - which of those who saw the beaten up guy by the road is the neighbor?  So what are we called to do?  AMEN.