Maundy Thursday online April 9

Jamesville Community Church online service

Service for Maundy Thursday  4/9/2020

Before worship:

            Gather a bowl of water for handwashing, and cloths to dry on

            Make placemats for each person for the supper.

Have a nice loaf of bread…maybe homemade????

            Have a cup of juice or wine for each person

           Have your candle to light at the start of worship.

            REMEMBER to read the passion Scriptures tomorrow, Good Friday.

CALL TO WORSHIP  (Please read the bold print aloud at home)

This night we join a solemn journey of three days that has changed the world and our own lives. Followers of Jesus have been taking this journey since his first followers took it, long ago.

This is the night of God’s love poured out, Jesus’ love poured out. (pause)

A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.

This is a night of love. (pause)

On this night Jesus took a towel and basin, and washed his disciples' feet. On this night he told them to do the same for others to show their love for him and for one another. 

This is the night of love.(pause)

On this night, Jesus broke bread and shared wine with his followers for the last time, and invited them to remember him, to encounter him anew, whenever they did the same. 

This is the night of love. (pause)

This is the night of love. And so, on this night, we welcome all here: we welcome all who have wandered, all who have betrayed, all who have not lived up to expectations, all who are still learning, all who need God’s love.  We join us in hearing and remembering and  obeying the new commandment Jesus gave us, and we feast at this table as Jesus commanded us, in love.

PRAYER

Messiah I come, brought to my knees by astonishing grace. In the presence of such humility from one so great, what can I do but kneel and praise?

 

Messiah I come, challenged to bow to the King who kneels. I want to pour out mercy and bring tender healing, But I am proud, judgmental, and self-absorbed and you are the only one who can lead me to first-becoming-last greatness.

 

I would wash and serve, wash and love, like you do. But first Lord Jesus, wash my feet, cleanse my heart ‘till I am – like you – humble and ready on my knees.

 

~ in “Daily Meditations and Response prayers for Holy Week” by Nigel Varndell. Copyright © 2011 Nigel Varndell (Meditations) and 2012 www.thesanctuarycentre.org/whereworldandworshipmeet.  Posted on the Sanctuary Centre website.  http://www.thesanctuarycentre.org/

 

 

SCRIPTURE   John 13:1-17   (Pastor Becky reads)

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. ²The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper ³Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, ⁴got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. ⁵Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. ⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” ⁷Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” ⁸Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” ⁹Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” ¹⁰Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” ¹²After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? ¹³You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. ¹⁴So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. ¹⁶Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. ¹⁷If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

MEDITATION

    At this point in Holy Week, Jesus has not yet been betrayed and turned over to the government and religious officials. After riding the donkey into Jerusalem, Jesus has gathered with his disciples in an upper room of a local house, to celebrate the seder meal, according to at least one of the gospel writers.  Before they eat that special meal that remembers how the Hebrew people were saved and brought out from Egypt & slavery,  Jesus acts the part of the host, washing the feet of guests, who have come inside from outside in the dirty streets.  We might remember here the woman who washed Jesus’ feet at another meal, when the host had neglected his duty. 

     Once again, Jesus uses the physical occasion to reveal spiritual truths.  Once again Jesus emphasises the humble nature of being the Messiah, like he did by riding on a donkey coming into Jerusalem. Taking the duties of a servant, the very Anointed One of God kneels before the disciples and washes their dusty feet.  He serves them as a servant, and tells them that this is an example - they are to serve one another even in the most humble of ways.  Later as he hosts the seder meal, he gives that famous new commandment - mandatum novum -  that we are to love one another as he loved us; as God has loved us.  Love and service, service and love, one to another.  

     By the by, I am surprised that footwashing has not come down through the centuries as a sacrament, like communion and baptism.  Jesus clearly does it and commands we do it, which are used as reasons for our other protestant sacraments.  I think it was spiritualized into Confession, which observant believers had to do before partaking in communion, in the Roman tradition. And because people were weird about naked feet.  If you’ve ever participated in a foot-washing, it is a physically humbling experience.  Of course, its spiritual meaning IS that of being washed by God, washed of our sins - but I could argue that Holy Communion and Baptism also have spiritual meanings yet are carried out physically.  Think about it!

     We are washing our hands tonight, which becomes poignant in this time of covid 19 and the washing hands we do all the time right now.  We do it now because we may have picked up the virus on our hands while out in the world, or may have touched things infected persons have touched.  That translates very well into a spiritual equivalent of how easily we pick up sin when we are out in the world, when we deal with matters set in motion by others who don’t have the same love for one another or God as we do.  There’s a song by an acapella group that asks, “Are My Hands Clean?”  It’s about tracing the path of our clothing from the underpaid folks who harvest the fibers, the badly treated workers who make of the fabric, the assembly-line conditions of those who cut of the fabric and sew the clothing - all done by poorly paid workers in slave conditions, just so we can buy it on sale at a discount store.  Indeed, it’s hard to live in this world and have our hands clean.  Our investments, shrinking as they are right now, are most likely in companies that exploit workers, too, to make another buck for the owners and stockholders.  Many large  companies practice less than ethical ways of business in other ways, too.  And we depend on them for our retirements.  It’s almost impossible to live our sheltered and protected lives as part of the privileged race of white americans without getting our hands dirty.  We are always in need of being washed from being out in the world, even before we get to our own acts of disobedience and sin. 

    Later in the story of Christ’s conviction and being delivered over to death, the governor Pontius Pilate will “wash his hands” in another way, symbolizing his desire to be free and clean from Jesus’ death, to not take responsibility.  Of course he is responsible, as we all are - and just an outward washing of hands without the inner acknowledgement of sin and guilt, is meaningless.  So this night, let us wash with understanding, and wash with the true intent to be washed by our Savior Jesus the Christ, and to in turn love and serve one another. 

    Then we will once again partake of that meal, that holy and sacred meal of communion, that reminds us yet again of Jesus’ sacrifice and service to us; a meal where Jesus is the host, and actually becomes the host himself as he serves us his very self.  This is a meal that speaks to us of how God has given God’s all to us and for us; and all for love. All we see and have,  all of creation, all of the gifts of life; all from God.  This meal reminds us that every meal we eat is holy as it comes from this blessed creation as a gift from God.   From the very presence of food that feeds us with its life , up to and including the very gift of Jesus’ life that gives us eternal life and feeds our soul and spirit, we partake of the bread and drink as did Jesus and the disciples on that night of the New Commandment - the new mandate that connects love …..  with service.  In John’s telling of this supper is where Jesus says the words, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  (Jn 13;34)  That’s how this night got its name - the new mandate, mandatum in Latin...the new commandment.  This night of the Lord’s Last Supper is named for the new commandment, to love one another as God loves, and to serve as Jesus serves.         AMEN

 

WASHING OF HANDS    (Let each person wash their hands in the bowl and dry them.)

We begin by washing, as we were washed in our baptism. We cleanse our hands as we were cleansed in the waters of new birth. We do this not because we are afraid, but because we were commanded to love: and to cleanse our hands, and gather in spirit, is how we love the vulnerable, whom Jesus loved. May we be instruments of love. May the sacrifices we make be for the good of our human family near and far.

SCRIPTURE        Matthew 26:26-30    (Pastor Becky reads)

²⁶While they were eating, Jesus took a loaf of bread, and after blessing it he broke it, gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” ²⁷Then he took a cup, and after giving thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; ²⁸for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. ²⁹I tell you, I will never again drink of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” ³⁰When they had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

CELEBRATION OF THE LORD’S SUPPER  

(Please serve each other at the time when you are invited to partake.)

This is the night of love. And this is the table of love. At this table, Christ, who loves us, is with us.   Christ is with us, and we are with Christ. We belong to God.

And so we pray: We are yours, all yours, blessed Triune God, all our lives, all our thanks, all our praise, all our fears, all our grumbling, all our hesitations, all our loves, all our joys, all our passions, we give them all to you, with bodies, and minds and voices. Yours, all yours!

What are we that you should notice us? What are we that you should love us? What are we what you should call us into covenant with you, a covenant we continually broke and you continuously sustained?  Mercy! How full of mercy you are!

How can we but praise you, joining our voices with the song of angels and saints, seraphim and martyrs, strangers and family in every generation:

You are holy, O God! You are worthy, O Christ! Worthy in your birth! Worthy in your living! Worthy in your loving! Worthy in your serving!  Worthy as you preached God’s kingdom, healed the sick, cleansed the lepers, gave sight to the blind, fed the hungry, and loved us all.

Worthy the night you took a towel and basin, washed your disciples' feet, and taught them to do likewise.

Worthy too, the same night we betrayed you, when you took the bread, blessed it and broke it,

and gave it to your disciples. Worthy when you told them, "This is my body broken for you. Remember me."  (BREAK BREAD)

Worthy when you took the cup, praised God and shared it, and worthy when you said, "This is my blood of the new covenant for you. Remember me."  POUR CUP

We remember, and we praise you with our lives and these gifts of bread and wine, proclaiming with one voice the mystery of faith:

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Come upon us, Holy Spirit.

Come upon these gifts.

Make them be for us Christ's body, Christ's blood.

Make us one body in Christ enlivened in love by his blood.

Even so, come and fill this feast, Holy Spirit, on this night, and every night until we eat it new at the marriage supper of the Lamb!

All blessing, honor, glory and power be yours, Holy Triune God, now and forever. Amen!

Let us partake of the bread and the cup. 

Thank you, God, for uniting us with Jesus in this holy mystery. We are no longer our own, but yours. So send us, and put us to leading and serving, loving as you have loved us wherever we go. Amen.

SENDING  PRAYER    (Please read aloud the bold printed lines)

Lord God, our Heavenly Father and Helper, open our ears that we may hear you as clearly as Isaiah did. Teach us to listen more intently to your Word than we do to the sounds of the world. When we hear, may we obey and rejoice with those who sang you into Jerusalem.             We trust in you O LORD:         You are our God.

Lord Jesus Christ, you emptied yourself for us. You set aside the glories of heaven and came to earth as the only Son of God. You were obedient unto death, even death on a cross. We confess that you are our Lord, the glory of God the Father.

We trust in you O LORD:         You are our God.

Holy Spirit, even as you were with Christ at His trial, be with us in our trials that we may not fear the forces of this world that can only inflict death. You remembered whose you were. You are the resurrection and the life.     We trust in you O LORD:     You are our God.

Lord Jesus Christ when we cry out in joy, hear our song as a song of thanksgiving. When we cry out in despair, remind us to commit our cause and our spirit into your hands.

We trust in you O LORD:          You are our God.

On this Thursday of the Passion, remember the suffering of those among us who need to know your love for them surpasses all human understanding: Kurt and Patty’s family, especially her parents,    _______.

We trust in you O LORD:                     You are our God.

Though we remember we are dust and to dust we shall return, we remember that we are your precious dust. Amen

(Blow your candle out.  There is no benediction, as the service continues until Sunday morning)

Expectations Palm Sunday online April 5

4/5/20  Palm Sunday - online service

PALM SUNDAY  

     Have a candle to light on the table or near you at the start of worship  

     Gather something green to wave from outside OR make your own!!!

CALL TO WORSHIP    (Read the bold print together)

We come to prepare for the holiest of weeks. 
We will journey through praise, with joy on our lips; we will travel through betrayal and death, cradling hope deep in our hearts
Jesus leads us through this week, and we will follow, for he is the life we long for, he is the Word who sustains us.
We wave palm branches in anticipation, we lay our love before him, to cushion his walk.
Setting aside all power, glory, and might, Jesus comes: modeling humility and obedience for all of us.
Hosanna! Hosanna! Blessed is the One who brings us the kingdom of God.

(Wave our palm branches and say “Hosanna! Hosanna!” as much as you want!)

CENTERING PRAYER  (Read together with Pastor Becky)

World leaders enter the gates with a parade of force and power; but you, who are the creator of all that is, enters on an ass.  World leaders are preceded by a show of troops and armaments; but you, who are the savior of the world, are preceded by branches of trees and cast off clothing. World leaders are greeted with shouts of domination and nationalistic pride; but you, who are the Ruler of the universe, are greeted with cries for salvation. World leaders are feared for their power; we greet you, O God, with the love of our hearts. 

Scripture     Matthew 21:1-11  

        (Be ready to wave your palms again at the right place – its underlined)

21When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, ²saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. ³If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” ⁴This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet, saying, ⁵“Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” ⁶The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; ⁷they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. ⁸A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. ⁹The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” ¹⁰When he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” ¹¹The crowds were saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee.”

Children’s Time Reflection – talk with each other and/or type in some answers on your screen.

Imagine you are there in that crowd (and not having to stay home):

What might you See?   Smell?  Hear?             How might you feel – Excited?  Scared?

SERMON

As I thought about what the Scripture of Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem might say to us in our context and time, and prayed for the Spirit to guide me, the word “expectations” came to me.  That’s usually the way the Spirit works with me - nudges, or something “coming to me” after I’ve actually remembered to ask….or some times the Spirit grabs me kicking and screaming, because sometimes I’m just slow on the uptake.  This time, thankfully, the word “expectations” just floated into my thinking about this Scripture.  

My daughter, at the younger ages of 4,5,6,7,8 - several years in there - wanted to throw big parties for her birthday.  And every year she ended up crying in her room because it wasn’t turning out like she expected and wanted.  She got SO excited, inviting friends, planning decorations and games and food!  I don’t know exactly what would go wrong - maybe somebody was late, or in a mood, or didn’t have the party spirit, or tried to take over the game or make other rules - kids get to feeling their oats sometimes, personalities rub….my daughter has a personality that likes details, which makes her a careful artist and a good planner - and has had to learn how to cope with the ebb and flow of how people actually are in person.  Hmmmm...wonder where she got that trait!  It took her a few year’s worth of parties to learn to just let it go and enjoy it in the present.  Her expectations, so specific in her mind, had to make allowance for the unexpected.

Isn’t that human?  As we go through life, don’t we all have expectations that aren’t met?  We have certain expectations of a boyfriend or girlfriend, then have to learn to know the actual real person.  Often they’re not a bad person, just different from our expectations - or they had different expectations of us! (Other times, they really are not a good fit…)  we have expectations of our spouses - how a marriage will be, what the partner is “supposed” do, how they are “supposed” to treat me.   Premarital counseling can help us start to think about these things, although it’s the living together that really tests it. 

We have expectations of what churches are supposed to be like, and what members are supposed to take on.  We have expectations of what a minister is supposed to be like - and ministers have their expectations of what their congregation is supposed to be like, too!  At least when the minister is younger, before she learns...we have certain expectations of what our government leaders are supposed to be like, especially based on their campaign promises, which we actually need to learn are just ways to get votes and get elected - what they are able to do depends a lot on many, many other factors.  Of course, there are some standards that do need to be met, and job responsibilities outlined in contracts and agreements that are to be met and maintained.  We have lots more secret expectations, though, personal expectation, hopes and longings we want fulfilled.  These are the expectations I’m talking about. 

When our expectations aren’t met, we get angry, or disappointed, which can easily turn into anger.  We want out - this wasn’t what we bargained for.  Sometimes we make do, and settle for what there is, and work with it.  Sometimes the disappointments and angers are too basic, too bottom line, to bear.  Sometimes we leave, and sometimes we are left. 

Expectations of Jesus are part of what explains the wild mood swing of Holy Week to me - the change in the crowds around Jesus from Palm Sunday to Good Friday.  Christian theologians have gone back in the Jewish Scriptures and found places that support the idea of a different kind of Messiah, a different kind of savior.  I don’t think those were obvious - the more obvious portrait of a Deliverer blessed by God is of one who, through faithfulness, beat the enemy, restored the tribe to leadership and land, and was a success militarily. Wisdom and faithfulness to God are in there, yes; but the idea of a wounded healer has never been popular or in the forefront of expectation - except for martyr’s, I guess.  And martyrs are not really “winners” in a worldly sense, especially while they are living. 

A commentator who has studied 1st century culture in Jerusalem notes that when important and successful civil leaders came into town, they came on pure white stallions with lots of color and gold and ceremony, with cheering crowds and flanks of soldiers marching before  them to show their power.  We’ve seen those kinds of parades on tv and movies - tanks and more tanks, soldiers all stepping in time with guns held firmly in place, flags flying, great ceremonial processions.

Contrast this with what we call Jesus’ triumphal entry - I think the name is rather tongue in cheek, myself.  He rides a donkey.  He maybe has his disciples with him.  He DOES have the cheering crowds, probably the poorer folks though. No red carpet - they throw their coats on the ground for him, though.  No waving flags - although they wave tree branches at him.  Evidently waving palms was a tradition at some Jewish feast days at other times of the year. 

Jesus is obviously contrasting himself to the worldly leadership, the military leadership, the governmental leadership, with their pomp and ceremonial bragging of greatness.  Yet I think the expectations and hopes placed on him had a more worldly tinge, then ----and even now. 

I mean, look at how we rate our churches - how big they are, how many programs they offer, how much money they take in, how skick their tv presence is….look at how we rate our clergy’s success - if she brings in lots of new people, if he is asked to pray at local festivities, if he builds a bigger building, if she is published in major religious magazines and asked to speak at large gatherings.

Look at the way we get mad at God if our wants are thwarted, as if God failed us.  We’re really no different from the folks in 1st century Jerusalem, are we?  People say God didn’t save my sister - so I quit church.  I hear the hurt at the loss, I hear the grief there - I don’t deny that.  I don’t deny the feeling that God didn’t turn out to be the kind of God the person hoped for, sparing their loss and doing what they asked.  The real loss is that they gave up on wrestling in prayer with their expectations of God, and haven’t yet worked through their false expectations. 

I hear people say that the church is full of hypocrites, and that they quit. Yes, the church is full of humans who have faults - we are all (hopefully) still learning and growing and becoming better people.  The expectation that all church folks would be perfect 100% of the time and respond perfectly 100% of the time is a false expectation. 

And as we are not 100% perfectly developed as Christ-followers, we are going to have unhelpful ideas of God - we are not going to understand the whys and hows of God working with humanity and the world.  The challenge is whether we fall away, yell “crucify him” and be ruled by our false expectations and hopes - of if we enter into that wrestling in prayer, bring to God our feelings of hopes betrayed, and seek to push through to a new understanding.  God has not changed -God’s nature is love and life and salvation for the world.  God is there for us, always has been, always will be.  Sometimes it's us that have it wrong....  And it’s difficult to let go of those hopes and expectations to see what is true. 

So when we remember and share in the greeting of our Savior Jesus, Jesus the Christ of God, who it is that we are greeting.  We are greeting the Sent One, the Anointed One, who takes away the sin of the world - and who is misunderstood, reviled, betrayed and killed - and who is then vindicated by being raised from the dead as the first of a new humanity.  Jesus is not a world ruler like the rulers we see around us.  Jesus did not start a new nation and establish himself as Dictator For Life, as Calvin and Hobbes used to joke.  Jesus was not a Rock Star. 

But Jesus is the savior of the world.  AMEN. 

GIVING     

Please continue your practice of giving during this time.  We are checking the mail for written checks, recording, and depositing them as usual.  There is also a button in the BREEZE dashboard now that says “GIVE NOW.”  All it takes is your bank’s routing number and your account number (these are protected), and an offering is done electronically.  Our treasurer Rob Shallish can also help to set up an automatic withdrawal if you wish. 

PRAYER   (You may type prayer requests on your screen, or send them ahead of time to

            Pastor Becky by text or email.)

(Silence)

Pastoral Prayer   and Lord’s Prayer (say in your house with Pastor Becky)

CLOSING BLESSING    (Wave those branches again!!!)

Blessed are you, Holy God, for in Jesus Christ you came to rule in our lives, not as a king, but as a humble servant, riding on a donkey. Enter into our hearts this day with your glory, that we may greet you with shouts of praise; through Christ, our Sovereign and Savior

A Service of Healing 3/29/20 Lent t5A

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

A Service of Healing

3/29/20    Lent 5A

Well, we’re a week before Holy Week begins in our church calendar.  Next week we’ll read again the story of how Jesus is welcomed like a Strong Deliverer and then in just a few days, turned on in anger and disappointment, and killed as an agitator against the government.  These lectionary texts for today are a reminder, before we go through those difficult stories, that from the beginning our God has been a God of life and new creation. The power of God to create life and restore life have been themes of the Jewish Scriptures in Job and the prophets, especially Ezekiel and Isaiah, from way back.  However, as Martha says in this reading from John’s gospel, the teaching was that this resurrection was for the last days, the end of times.  

I think it may be a good reminder for us as well - as we are in this time of mounting tension and fear of how this virus is going to spread and how bad things might get.  Numbers of new cases and serious cases are still going up in our county and other counties around the country. Perhaps these words are a timely reminder to us that our God is a God of new life and new creation - always has been, and always will be.  We can trust in God’s love and power and desire for life to thrive even as we wonder where this national crisis is going to take us.  

I was talking this week to a woman who remembers the rationing of butter and other foods, and the Victory Gardens homes were encouraged to have, from the World War 2 era. That certainly was a time of national fear, of changes that affected virtually every home.  I don’t think there’s been this kind of national response to a crisis in my lifetime - well, I remember lining up for gas on alternate days in a time when gas availability was tight…. And I was alive in the Cuban Missile Crisis, although I was in 1st grade & didn’t realize a lot of what was going on.  We lived in DC then, where it was a big worry for my parents. My parent’s generation had the Great Depression in their childhoods, a stark memory of national crisis.  

I talked to my daughter this week and she tentatively said, “This is going to be in the history books, isn’t it mom?” It hadn’t occurred to me yet, but she’s probably right.  And we will probably remember the year we had to celebrate Palm Sunday and Easter watching a service on facebook…. if not other parts yet to come. We need to hold on to God’s promises to always be with us, and that where God is, love and life are. Hold on to that - trust that God is with us, God loves us, and we are all ultimately okay.  

In my preparation of bulletins before my vacation, wanting to be ahead and to have time to think about things and plan with music and all, I had designed this service today to be a service of healing and wholeness, a service based around the promise of restoration and new life.  It seems that is still a good purpose, and in fact, even a better purpose now in this crisis time.  

The words from the prophet Ezekiel are about God restoring spiritual life and power to the Israelites, when their spirits were pretty much annihilated by all the things that had happened to them - being conquered by this nation and that nation, carried off into foreign lands, and much suffering.  Ezekiel has this great visionary experience where dry, long dead bones are reclothed in flesh, and then reanimated by the breath of God into living souls. It’s a powerful picture of how the Spirit can come back into us and rekindle that spark life, that spark of hope, that spark of joy. A whole organization, a whole people, a whole Church can be rejuvenated and stirred up by that bracing wind of God’s Spirit.  I’ve already heard people wondering about what the state of their congregation will be when this is over - fearing that many of our small congregations may be too broke or too decimated to continue. I want to hold on to this vision of Ezekiel’s, where the bones that are so old that they are dry and returning to dust - these bones are regathered, remade, and re-animated with the breath of God, to become again a great congregation praising God.  Keep this in front of our fearful eyes, and as an answer to our worrisome doubts. Our God is one who makes a way out of no way, who made all that is just by speaking. This is a great and inspirational vision.  

The encounter of Jesus with the family of Mary, Martha and Lazarus is a similar reminder that God is Life; and where God is, the very power of Life itself is.  Here one person is restored to life, and the loving family is restored again to wholeness. Mary and Martha are realists about their brother Lazarus’ death in regards to the practical details and knowledge of death; they also know their faith’s teachings about the last days. At the same time, they are immersed in and overwhelmed by the grief of their loss.  That seems paradoxical…. Martha knows what her faith teaches about resurrection at the end times, yet still grieves over her brother.  

An early and traumatic memory of mine from when my youngest sister died - I was newly 7, and I can remember standing at the church door as people came out from her funeral service to shake our hands, faces wet with tears, to assure us that Susie’s suffering was over, and she was with God, and in a better place.  I remember wondering, “Then why are they crying, if it’s better to be in heaven and her suffering is over?” I was pretty literal at 7 years old, and didn’t understand holding those 2 things together. I didn’t understand that one can know the teachings of faith yet still suffer human feelings of loss. I realized later that they were trying to find something comforting to say, and didn’t at all mean to take away our sadness, our loss or our grief - well, maybe they hoped these sayings would somewhat mitigate our sorrow, maybe it helped them at some point of loss in their life.  Those kinds of sayings don’t really do much when one is experiencing the loss and the sudden change of how our world was going. I don’t say them to grieving people when it’s so close to their loss - I say I’m so sorry and look for some way to offer practical help, or just be present, just listening to their stories. LAter on, people can remember those promises and perhaps find some solace. At the point of the loss, it just sort of goes in one ear and out the other.  

I mean, even Jesus cried over Lazarus’ death.  And certainly Jesus knew the power of God - he says to Martha,  “I, I am the resurrection and the life!” Yet he also wept. My New Revised Standard translation says that Jesus was greatly disturbed and deeply moved.  The actual Greek words refer anatomically to what are called “the bowels of compassion.” He felt it in his gut, we might say, knowing how we feel these deep losses in our bodies, can’t eat, or get nauseous.  Grief affects us physiologically, and that’s how Jesus felt, too. He felt in his own body the contradiction between the power of death and the Godly power of life, and he acted. That’s love, that’s compassion - com-passion - with passion, with emotion, with feeling.  God weeps with us, and works for restoration and life and healing.

The message that I hear from these Scriptures that have been preserved and come down to us from our faith ancestors, is not to forget that our God is a God of new life; God is always responding in each moment, responding to the events that happen and working to restore life again.  Yes, we have difficult times; yes, we have losses; yes, we have to cope with sudden changes and uncertainty and fear. Yet God does not abandon us in hard times; Jesus cries and mourns with us, the Spirit whispers assurance in our souls. I posted a hymn Friday that says “God is with us in the storm,” a good message for these times we’re in.   I posted His Eye Is on the Sparrow, too - “I know who holds tomorrow, and I know who holds my hand.” All truths we need to remember as we face whatever it is that is coming towards us and our world.  

There’s a Mr. Rogers quote that’s been going that indicates a way to manage our fears -  reminding us that in a crisis, look for the helpers. We are, after all, created in God’s image, and filled with God’s love.  If God can be present in trouble and be deeply moved, so are we. As God seeks healing and restoration, so can we. As God loves and cares for those going through hard times, so can we.  In fact, as the gathering believers, the church, the very Body of Christ, we can be God’s hands and feet and hearts and bowels of compassion to each other. The same caring we feel for our own immediate families, we can feel towards others as well.  Our hearts have room for much love and care, although since we’re not God, we have to do some self-care so we don’t burn out. God doesn’t burn out.  

Already we are seeing signs of good and caring people around us - take note of these, lift them up.  Lift up the courage of our health care people who are staying the course with the ill. Lift up the faithfulness and courage of those still stocking shelves at the markets, and filling prescriptions at the pharmacies.  Give thanks for those working in keeping our basic sanitation going, our power going, our mail going, our internet going. Give thanks that people have specialized in epidemics and the study of pandemics - it may have seemed unneeded before now, but now we’re glad for the forethought.  Give thanks for the researchers looking for vaccines and medicines. I know all of us are continuing to pray for all these people as well as for the future. Hold on to what we know in our hearts about God, the promises that God has kept through history, and will continue to keep now. AMEN.

Temptation: That Crafty Persuasion Gen 2

Rev. Dr. Rebecca L. Kiser

Temptation: That Crafty Persuasion

Lent 2A      3/8/2020 

            When my firstborn son was, I don’t know, 3? 4? 5?  He was talking well, anyway, and thinking things.  He came to me in the kitchen, and asked politely if he could have an ice cream sandwich - he’d eaten a good lunch, he would take it on the porch and not make a mess. (All this explanation should have been a clue….) I was so pleased with his politeness and thoughtfulness, that I said “Yes,”  thanked him for asking so nicely, and gave him an ice cream sandwich.  He went outside to the porch and ate it. When he was done, he returned  to the kitchen beaming, and explained - “I tricked you, Mommy!  Daddy gave me one, too!!!” 

I was angry, dismayed -  and strangely wanted to crack up laughing at how he was telling on himself.  Being a pastor and theologian, my brain goes odd places - I immediately knew that he had just eaten of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  He was now his own creature, with the flush of having done something unique, and proud of his ability to think.  I knew that his dad and I would have to start being more aware now. 

My text today, as was read a few moments ago, is part of the saga of the early chapters of Genesis.  “In the Beginning” is the Hebrew name of the book, based on its first word.  I like the name “Beginnings.”  It’s a foundational book, explaining how things came to be as they are; or better, a way of putting forward the understanding of things through a trust and assurance of God’s involvement with it all.  How people and God and all creation are involved together.  How humanity is a commingling of the stardust of earth and the life-giving breath of the Divine.  How we find ourselves struggling with good and evil, mortality, feeling apart from God and longing to regain a wholeness that we intuit is there, and how difficult it is to eke a living on earth. 

All cultures have origin stories that give their people a basic orientation to how things are and try to answer the “why.”  I went on a quest to read lots of creation stories some years back, so I could hear our stories with a new ear, get past the literalism most of us were raised on, and get to the truths that are being communicated from way back. 

Genesis has 2 tellings of how God made things and how they are for us humans.  Each uses a distinct name for God.  Since we don’t read Hebrew (if we did the different names for God would be obvious), the English translation tries to show this by using various forms of God & Lord with capital first letters, and the all-capital LORD; sometimes combined as Lord God.    tIt’s not arbitrary - they are trying to show us the different traditions.  It’s interesting to know that as we read.  Those of you reading the Bible through right now, note the word and the spelling of  Lord and God as you read. 

The first telling of creation and God is the version with the wonderful refrain, “God saw that it was good,” and “the evening and the morning were the first/ second etc day,”  It’s actually quite an interesting study on biology - starting with water, land emerging, plants emerging, then sea life emerging, then animal life.  On what the story calls the 6th day, humanity is created in the image of God, male and female, no detail.  That is called good, too.  On the 7th day, God rests - the origin of Sabbath.  

The 2nd telling starts with the bare earth and the heavens, and God creates the human out of earthy stuff, dust, humus - and the life-giving Spirit or breath. Then in a few words God makes a garden for the human and makes lots of animals to try and make a companion to the human. Most Bible readers call this human Adam, and assume it's male.Not so! At this point the creature is a generic Human made from humus or Earthling made from Earth. It’s a play on words, and tells us what we are in our name.   Dust - enlivened by divine breath, Spirit. The translators made some assumptions here, in using the Hebrew word Adam as a name - a better name, in my humble opinion, might be “Dusty.”   That would translate the pun that identifies us.   Its interesting to note that in this story, God says that it’s NOT GOOD for Dusty to be solo.  If the various animals aren’t close enough companions, God takes a piece of Dusty & makes another dust creature.  In this way, the story tells us that the community aspect of humanity is important, that we need one another, and that sexuality and gender are a good part of the way things are.  That’s the situation we find ourselves in living in the world, and according to our faith, it's on purpose. 

This next part of the story has seen through a lens of cultural stereotypes by generations, and is a mis-interpretation that has led to much denigration of women.  In fact, the mis-interpretation does the same thing as the characters in the story - it throws blame.  People have read all sorts of things into the story that simply are not there - and used this story to justify putting down women, calling us the Devil’s gateway, wondering if we had souls, and blocking the use of our gifts in church.  In effect, they’ve acted out just what the human Adam and Eve do in the story - blame the other, try and justify and explain away misogyny, and avoid responsibility for it. In that mis-interpreting way, women are still held as temptresses, especially in a sexual way; even court cases this past year have blamed the woman for a man’s misbehavior.  

This is the text we read today is known in theology as “THE FALL.”

If you were reading a story where there are multiple doors and the character is given permission to open them all except one, what ALWAYS happens?  Yes, the character wonders why, wonders what could possibly be in that door, and eventually opens it.  In our text,  I can’t help but say, “What’s with that one tree?” and get curious.  That’s how humans are. The story calls it the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and the story tells us it’s inevitable that we will learn this…..and that it will also make us grieve.  This is who we humans are, and this is the situation we find ourselves in, in life.  We know good and we know evil, and we are grieved by it; we can’t fix it, we try to get out from under it with blaming and justifying and avoiding because it's hard to admit.   The wholeness we seem to intuit and long for is only available through God, through Jesus, that human who was able to live in unity of spirit and matter, flesh and spirit, God and humanness. 

Like my son, all of us come to the point of knowing good and evil - & at a young age.  It looks promising, that getting what we want...and getting away with it.  And our sense of loss of innocence, our sense of guilt, our trying to wriggle away from it, follows on its heels. 

People who don’t feel this loss and wrongness of evil are sociopaths. 

Human history is full of both those who strive to do well, who have compassion and care about others than themselves, who seek peaceful ways of living together, who seek kindness, who seek the good for all - these Scripture calls the fruit of the Spirit.  Human history is also full of those who take what they want with violence, only seek good for their own tribe, glory in brutality and conquering, using all kinds of justifications and blaming.  If we can’t see these two things fighting within ourselves, we can at least see it in history.  Humans have eaten of the tree of good and evil.  And the lure and attraction of the evil are large - it feeds our desires, and tries to answer our feelings of insecurity. 

The faith stories of Scripture go on to tell us that God has always sought to provide a way of restoration of the relationship between us and God, between us and others, between us and all creation.  Showing us who God is through creation is a way; giving The Law was another; coming in flesh in Jesus was yet another.  The Jesus who we worship shows that perfect awareness of Spirit and flesh, living totally with God while being human.  The possibilities of the Kingdom of God attracted many followers among those humans around him - and also created hatred and fear in those who thought they were happy doing things their own way.  So Jesus was killed, rejected by the Empire which he criticized.  And God vindicated him by raising him in a new creation, what the Scripture calls a Second Adam, the start of a new thing that we are all invited to enter and enjoy.

I like to read a guy named Frederick Buechner, and among the wise things he says is that the Gospel is bad news before it is good news.  The bad news is that we know good and evil, and that evil is difficult to withstand.  In fact, it's really hard to look at ourselves and admit how much we do is self-motivated, how much we do because of our basic brokenness, no matter how much we desire and long for the good.  Yet without that admission, without that looking into the mirror and seeing our knowledge of good AND evil , we can’t get to where the gospel becomes, in fact, good news - that we can be made right with God through following Jesus, saying yes to Jesus’ invitation to repent and step into the kingdom of God, to take the path of following Jesus as our path, and learning from him.

These stories tell us what we are like, and show us that we have all eaten of that tree of good and evil, then show us that God has made a way for that longing for healing and wholeness are freely available.  The invitation is to look at ourselves honestly, with God’s help; and to turn in the direction of following Jesus, with God’s help.  May God’s Spirit strengthen us and enlighten us.  AMEN.