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Engaging Faith: Gratitude

2/26/2023

First Presbyterian Church
Rev. Dr. John Judson

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Psalm 138; Philippians 1:1-11

It was not a regular topic of conversation but occasionally my three brothers and I would debate which one of us was our parents’ favorite. In the end we could never come to a consensus, each of us choosing one or another of our siblings. I think this speaks highly of our parents who never seemed to let on which, if any of us, were favored over the others. The same could not be said for the Apostle Paul, however, because if you read his letters, it is clear which of the churches he founded was his favorite. And that church is the church at Philippi. We are not exactly sure why that favored status belonged to them, but that being the case, I want to use his words to the Philippian believers as my words to you on this, my final Sunday with you.

“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the Gospel from the first day until now.” I want to thank you for allowing me to share the good news of Jesus Christ in word with you week after week and year after year. You have allowed me to share it in worship on Sunday mornings, in Rejoicing Spirits services, in Bible studies, in articles, in the Walk Through the Bible for children and adults, as well as in Vacation Bible Camp. I am grateful for your sharing in the Good News with me. You have allowed me to share with you in the Good News of Jesus in deed as well. You allowed us to share in your amazing work outside of the walls of this building from Alcott in Pontiac to rural villages in Kenya. I am grateful.

“I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.” Cindy and I believe that there are great things to come for Everybody’s Church. This is not to minimize what we have done together over the past fourteen years. Together, in the power of the Spirit, we have created a unique, wonderful, and growing community. We have created a community in which all persons are welcomed, embraced, and encouraged to use their gifts to create a better community and world. This welcome is regardless of a person’s gender identity, skin color, language, sexual orientation, occupation, wealth, abilities, or any other way we might categorize ourselves. It is so because we profess that all human beings are beloved children of the loving and living God. What I hope we will remember is that this work did not begin with me, nor will it end with me. This work began decades ago with the hard work of individuals in this community. These foremothers and forefathers are no longer with us, yet they plowed and planted this vision for us to reap the harvest of the love it offers. They were abolitionists and advocates of women’s suffrage and ordination. They were advocates for the full inclusion of members of the LGBTQIA+ community. They were advocates for the full inclusion of persons of all abilities. We are the inheritors of a great history and tradition. And I believe that God is not done with this community yet and has great things in store for you in the days, weeks, and years ahead. I believe you will continue to be a light to the world. I am grateful.

“…it is right for me to think this way about all of you because you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me.” I want to thank you for sharing God’s grace with me and Cindy. I want to thank you for sharing the best and the most difficult of times with us. You gave us the great privilege of sharing in moments of great joy: moments of birth and baptism, moments of confirmation and graduation, moments of promotions and business success, and moments of anniversaries and successful surgeries. You also gave us the honor of sharing the most difficult of times: moments of difficult diagnoses and deaths, moments of loss and struggle, and moments of wrestling with mental and physical illnesses. There were also moments of Gospel and grace in which we know that you kept us in your prayers, through our own struggles and surgeries, and our own joys and celebrations. There were other ways that you shared as well. You shared your resources to provide for us over the past fourteen years. We pray in joy for you because of your sharing so much with us. I am grateful.

“And this is my prayer, that your love may overflow more and more with knowledge and full of insight to help you determine what is best, so that in the day of Christ you may be pure and blameless, having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” I want to thank you, the congregation and the session, all the sessions, since I arrived, for being permission giving and not permission withholding. One of the truisms about most churches and organizations is that they are loath to change and transform. There are people constantly saying, “We’ve never done it that way. Here is what we have always done and we need to keep doing exactly the same.” Though I may have heard some of this, what I discovered was that First Presbyterian was a place that was willing to experiment; experiment with worship, mission, fellowship, and virtually any other aspect of the life of this church. I believe you have been this kind of church because you desire to discover all knowledge and insight in order to determine what is best so that you can be the church Jesus Christ desires you to be, so that your love may overflow into the world. You have no idea how many other pastors when they hear this about our church, have said to me and to Rev. Amy and Rev. Bethany, “I wish I could serve at a place like that.” And each time that they say this, it is a reminder to me just how amazing you are…for you are the church. You are the living body of Christ. I am grateful.

Before I offer you my challenge, there are three more thank yous I want to offer. First it is to you, the folks who come here week after week, praying for Cindy and me, the world, and one another. I am grateful to you for your faithfulness.

Second, I want to thank the people I have worked with past and present on staff here. They are one of the many reasons why we are the church we are, why we are becoming the church we are becoming. These folks are faithful, talented, committed, hardworking, and just fabulous individuals. Please pray for them during this time of transition and give them all the love and support you can.
Finally, I want to thank Cindy, my rock and my informal parish associate. I could not have done this without her. She was my biggest supporter and fiercest defender. And a great editor.

My friends, we live in a hurting world. We live in a world that is looking for hope. You are that place where people can come and find love and hope, where people can find healing and grace, where people can find purpose and community. My challenge for you is to be Everybody’s Church in which life and love can continue to flourish and change the world.

Embracing Faith: Blessings

1/29/2023

by Rev. Dr. John Judson
January 29, 2023

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Genesis 26:1-5; Matthew 5:1-12

      Many of you know that I grew up in a home with four boys, of which I am the number two child. As with many homes, my parents were big on chores. There were essentially personal chores such as making our beds and picking up our toys, or later in life, putting away our tools after we had been working on cars. There were also shared chores. These were the ones in which we were less interested. These included mowing the lawn, clearing the dishes, and loading and unloading the dishwasher. None of us were particularly enamored of any of these chores, especially mowing the lawn in Houston’s hot and humid summers. There was however, one chore none of us minded doing. That was setting the table. We didn’t mind setting the table because we knew it was a precursor to what was to follow, a wonderful, delicious dinner and dessert from our mother. It was only later in life that I realized that setting the table was often used as a metaphor, describing some event, or moment, that was intended to whet the appetite for what was to follow. And it was only this week, after almost forty years of ministry, that I realized why the Beatitudes are where they are, at the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, and that was to whet the appetite of Jesus’ hearers for what was to follow.

      To understand this, we need to understand two things. First, we need to understand what the Sermon on the Mount is. The sermon on the Mount is Jesus doing his impression of Moses giving the Law to the Hebrews at Sinai. As a reminder, Moses is given the Law, or Torah, at Sinai and then he teaches it to the people so that the people might be faithful to God; and in being faithful find a full life. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is not making up new laws. Instead, what he is doing is telling the people about faithfulness. Just as Moses did, Jesus is going to tell the people how they ought to live to find a full life. And in so doing he begins where Moses begins by telling the people that the God to whom they are to be faithful is a God who has been faithful to them. The Ten Commandments begins with this table setting wording, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery…”. God is faithful, so God’s people are called to be faithful in return. The Beatitudes serve the same function of setting the table for Jesus’ teaching on faithfulness. This leads us to our second understanding, which is what Jesus means by blessed, or blessing. A blessing, or to be blessed consists of two parts: a problem and a promise. This is what we have in Exodus, a problem (slavery) and a promise (freedom).

      The same is true of each of the Beatitudes. Each beatitude contains a problem and they each contain a promise. I realize that at first glance this might not appear to be so, but over the next few minutes we will discover how Jesus is setting the table for people to desire to be faithful to God because God has been and is promising to be faithful to them. And though we won’t take the time this morning, I would argue that given more time we could link the Beatitudes with the teachings that follow. But for this morning we are going to take a quick tour of the Beatitudes and see how each contains a problem and a promise for dealing with that promise, and are thus blessings, even when they might not appear to be. And I hope that in doing so, you will find a beatitude, a blessing, that offers you hope as well. So, let’s begin.

      Jesus opens with, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” The problem is that there are moments when life overwhelms us, and we want to give up all hope. We simply sit in despair. This is what it means to be poor in spirit. The promise God offers is the Kingdom of Heaven. This does not mean we will only find new life in heaven, but instead the Kingdom of Heaven, for Jesus, is the community of believers who are supposed to demonstrate what heaven looks like on earth. In other words, when we are ready to give up, we have this community in which to turn to find support, love, and care. We are not alone.

      Next, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” The problem is guilt. Mourning here does not mean mourning the loss of someone we love. Mourning here, is a specific word that describes the guilt we feel when we have said, thought, or done something that we know is wrong; that we know has harmed others. The Promise God offers is comfort, or forgiveness. God does not want us to spend our lives feeling guilty, but desires that we be set free for new life.

      Third, Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” The problem is that the humble often find themselves left out of all the good the world seems to offer. I say “the humble” because meek here does not mean “mousy” and “afraid,” instead it means living with true humility. The promise God makes is that the goodness of life, of the earth, will come to those who are humble even when it seems that they will be left out of all the good stuff that God has to offer.

      In the fourth Beatitude Jesus teaches, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” The problem is that it is difficult to live righteously, which as I have said before does not mean to be perfect, but to live in right relationship with God and others. As most of us are probably aware, living with the people around us is not always easy. We know how we are to treat them, and we often don’t. We also know how we are to live in relationship with God, and we can find that difficult as well. The Promise is that God will make these right relationships possible. We will find what we need to live rightly with God and others.

      Fifth, Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” The problem is that no good deed goes unpunished. In other words, showing mercy can be taken by the world as weakness and thus no mercy is shown to the weak. The promise is that in return for our showing mercy, God will take mercy on us. God will come into our lives in such a way that full life becomes possible even in the face of an often merciless world.

      Sixth, Jesus teaches, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” The problem is that focusing on being faithful to God as our priority can cause us to become outsiders. The world wants us to focus on their priorities: wealth, power, fame, and more. God desires us to focus on God, for in God there is true life. The promise is that if we focus on God, which is what being pure in heart means, we will indeed encounter God in such a way that our lives are given full meaning and purpose.

      Seventh, Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” The problem is that bridge building, which is what peacemaking is, can be difficult if not seemingly impossible. People want to be confrontational rather than conciliatory. The result is that people seldom seek to be bridgebuilders. The promise though is that those who promote peace will have a special relationship with God because they are imitating the peacemaking that Jesus came to offer; peacemaking that offers a fullness of life for all persons.

      Though there are two more beatitudes, I will combine them into one because they both have to do with “blessed are you when people persecute you, revile you, and speak evil against you because you are doing what God would have you to do.” The problem is that living one’s life as a Jesus follower doesn’t make one win many popularity contests. It can often lead to making one an outlier in many social circles. Honesty can get you fired. Forgiving rather than condemning may put you at risk. Placing God before all else can cause one to be considered strange. But the promise is that we do not do this alone. The promise is that we are part of a counter-cultural community that works to be those who offer life to all.

      Being faithful to God through the teachings of Jesus is not always an easy road. It can, in fact, be difficult. Yet the Beatitudes tell us that we can be faithful to God because God is always faithful to us. My challenge for you this week is this, to ask yourselves, how am I consciously being faithful to Jesus, even as God is being faithful to me?

Embracing Faith: Adventure

1/22/2023

Rev. Dr. John Judson
January 22, 2023

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Genesis 12:1-9; Matthew 4:12-23

Once upon a time, as all good fairytales begin, there was a kingdom surrounded by a forest. Every day hunters would venture into the forest and return with game to feed the people. But one day a hunter went in and never came back. Later more and more hunters went into the same part of the forest, and they did not return. Soon the people did not go into that part of the forest anymore. One day a hunter, whom no one knew, arrived in the city and asked, “Is there anything dangerous to do around here?” The king said to him, “Well I could tell you about the part the part of the forest into which we don’t go because no one ever returns. There’s not much return on going in there.” Upon hearing this, the unknown hunter decided that is where he should go. Taking only his trusty dog with him, he headed into the forest. He and the dog walked for several days, and then they happened upon a pond. As they approached the pond, a great red, hairy arm reached out, grabbed the dog, and dragged it under. Rather than running away in fear, the hunter said, “This must be the place.” This fairy tale is called “Iron John” or “Iron Hans”, or any other name, but it is about the heart of adventure; going into the unknown and dealing with whatever is encountered.

In my mind, we use the term adventure perhaps too often to describe too many things that are trips rather than adventures. I say this because Cindy and I get multiple catalogues every week from cruise companies trying to get us to go on their “adventures.” The catalogues then go on to describe how luxurious the accommodations on the ships are, how fabulous the food is, the amazing sights you will see, and how the cruise line takes care of everything from when you leave home to when you return, and more. This my friends, is a trip. This is not an adventure. An adventure, as I described a moment ago, is going into the unknown and dealing with whatever is encountered. This is the kind of adventure we find in all great stories stretching from Gilgamesh to Star Trek. These are the kind of stories that draw us to movie theatres and streaming services because there is something about watching adventures from the safety of comfortable chairs that stirs something deep within us.

These are also the kind of stories we read in the Bible about God’s people. This is the story of Abram and Sarai. Abram and Sarai were comfortably well-off in Heron. They had everything they needed. God, however, had other plans for them. God asks them to pick up, leave behind family and friends, and travel to an unknown land; a journey that would cause them to encounter untold dangers. This is the story of God’s people fleeing Egypt. Though they are free they must travel across wastelands with little food or water. They must travel to places that are inhabited by fearsome peoples who have fortified cities. This is the story of Jesus and the disciples. Jesus has begun his ministry as a wondering apocalyptic preacher, teacher, and exorcist. Along the way he calls disciples to come on the journey with him. Those who follow have no idea how they will feed themselves, where they will stay, or what will happen to them, but they are willing to go on an adventure. This is one reason I believe that the Biblical stories have staying power with generations of human beings; they stir something deep inside us. The question becomes though, why does God continually call people to adventure? Why perhaps, might God be calling us to adventure?

I would argue that there are two reasons that God calls God’s people to adventure. The first is that adventure leads people to trust God. Over the past several weeks we have been talking about faith; about faith as faithfulness born in humility and nurtured in focusing on God. But the question the Bible always poses is, what kind of God are we placing our faith in? What kind of God are we being faithful to? Is this God trustworthy enough to follow? If we think about it for a moment, these are the kinds of questions that, sooner or later, we ask about every relationship. Can I trust this person? Is this person someone I can spend time with? Is this a person I ought to follow? In some ways only time will tell as we measure their trustworthiness. This is what happens in adventures. In adventures the true measure of a person, or of God is revealed. In both our stories we watch as people discover that God can be trusted. Abram and Sarai find themselves in multiple difficult situations, and yet God rescues and protects them every time. In those moments, they learn to trust God. The same is true for the people of God in the wilderness. God provided them with food, water, clothing, and protection. The same is true with the disciples. When the disciples believed they would perish in a storm at sea, Jesus saved them. When people were hungry, Jesus fed them. When Jesus said he would be raised on the third day, he was. The longer the disciples are with Jesus the more they realize that they can trust in him and trust God.

The second reason I believe that God calls God’s people on adventures is that it is during adventures that people are transformed; transformed more and more into the image of Christ such that we can be more and more faithful along our life’s paths. Think about adventure as resistance training for faith. In resistance training one uses one’s own weight, or resistance bands, big rubber bands, or weights, to in essence, push back against. As one pushes back against the resistance, muscle is transformed. It is strengthened and improved. This is what adventure does for our faith and faithfulness. Abram and Sarai are not the same at the end of their journey as they are at the beginning. They are so different in fact, that they are given new names. They become Abraham and Sarah as their faith and faithfulness increase. The people of God in the wilderness need forty years of adventure training to become ready for their next adventure of going into the land of Promise. The disciples need three years of adventure training and a resurrection for them to be ready to carry out their mission of proclaiming God’s love in Jesus to the world.

Adventure is what God’s people are always called to, and I believe that we at Everybody’s Church have been and continue to be on an adventure for God, especially over the past seven years. I say this because the last seven years have sent the church into new and uncharted territories. We have traveled through four election cycles that stretched and broke friendships, families, and churches. We have traveled through a time of racial reckoning that divided our nation and churches. We have traveled through a pandemic that had not been experienced in more than a hundred years, and simply will not go away; a pandemic that forced churches, schools, and businesses to close and adapt. And this pandemic was enough to not only cause many businesses but churches as well to go out of business. All these events tested the faith and faithfulness of our church and all of you. Yet what we discovered was that we could trust God through it all. We realized that God’s presence and power, love, and compassion never left us, but lifted us up even in the most difficult of times. We were transformed. We are not the same church now that we were seven, or ten, or fifteen years ago. The resistance training of adventure has caused us to be a more compassionate, inclusive, welcoming, and serving community. It is not that we were not these things before, but it is that we have discovered more and more what it means to be Everybody’s Church.

I wish I could say that the adventure was over and that we are going on a trip instead. However, the adventure is going to continue. It will continue as you welcome an interim pastor who will help to lead you on this adventure over the short term. Then you will call a new pastor who will lead you in the next stage of your adventure. It will be an adventure because the world continues to change, and challenges will continue to be present. But the gift of God is that God is always with us, showing us how we are to continue to be the church if Jesus Christ, shining light into the world as Everybody’s Church. My challenge to you then on this Sunday is to say “yes” to the adventure and then week after week, come to this sanctuary and say, “This must be the place” where I will adventure with Jesus and this community as together, we seek to be God’s inclusive family.

Embracing Faith: Focus

1/15/2023

Rev. Dr. John Judson
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2 Kings 21:1-9; Matthew 4:1-11

      It was our daughter’s first time to drive without either her mother or I in the car, though her older brother was with her. Andy was with her because in Texas they have graduated driver’s licenses which state that for the first six months for a driver under 18, they cannot have anyone under 18 as their only passenger and must have someone over 18 in the car. Katie wanted to go to a friend’s house and neither Cindy nor I were available. Fortunately, Andy was home from college and agreed to ride along, bring the car home, and then go to get her. As they were almost to their destination Katie decided to change the station on the radio. Glancing down, all she heard was Andy yelling, “Katie, watch out!” but it was too late. The parked car came out of nowhere and Katie ran right into the rear, left quarter fender. She was devastated and burst into tears. Andy, being the good older brother, went to the house where the car was parked, spoke with the owner, exchanged insurance information, and then drove Katie home. The good news was that there was little damage, and no one was hurt. But for Katie, it was a valuable lesson in the need to stay focused.

      Staying focused is something that we are not always good at. I say this because as human beings we are easily distracted … squirrels … and those distractions are what often cause us to crash, literally, figuratively, and spiritually. Every year more than 3,000 people are killed in accidents involving distracted drivers. We all know the distracted drill when our minds wander: our phones ring, we think of a text we need to return, we reach to tune the radio, we think about work, kids, home, the shopping list rather than the road ahead. And it is not just in the car. It happens at work, at home, stepping off a curb. I would argue that this happens because our brains have not evolved to filter all the information that is coming at us through all our senses. And this is true regarding our faith as well. I say this because faith is not a thing, or a doctrine, or an affirmation of particular beliefs, though those are all part of faith. I have said this probably too many times, but it bears repeating, and that is that faith is faithfulness. Faith is a journey of faithfulness. Faith is about living a particular type of life as followers of Jesus. And that kind of faith takes focus.

      This concept of staying focused is what is at the heart of both our stories this morning. The story from 2 Kings, is about a king named Manasseh. Manasseh was the son of king Hezekiah, who had tried his best to stay focused on being faithful to YHWY, the God of his ancestors. After his father’s death, Manasseh was faced with the difficult task of trying to be faithful to YHWY while also being a client state of the Assyrian Empire. While difficult, it would have been possible. Yet Manasseh allowed himself to be distracted by the pomp, and power of the Assyrians. So rather than focus on faithfulness to YHWY he focused on being faithful to the gods of Assyria. This led him off the path of YHWY and into a dangerous and destructive path, where he not only set up altars to other gods in the Temple in Jerusalem, but he sacrificed his own sons to please the gods. And evidently the people followed him in these practices. This is what can happen when God’s people lose focus. We end up embracing practices that are antithetical to God’s desire for God’s people.

      Focus is also at the heart of the story out of Matthew. In this story, each of the temptations is an attempt to get Jesus to stop focusing on his mission and to focus instead on himself. I say this because Jesus’ antagonist is attempting to get Jesus to lose focus on his mission and focus on himself. The first distraction is hunger. “Hey Jesus,” the devil says, “You look famished. You know that you don’t have to fast. You are worth using your powers to cook up something good. Forget focusing on God’s plans for you. Think about yourself. Look in the vanity mirror and say, ‘I’m worth it.’” The second has to do with fame. Again, the devil says, “Look Jesus, no one knows who you are. And if no one knows who you are then how can they follow you? What you need is a good Instagram moment that will get you on Galilee’s Got Talent. All you need to do is go to the top of the Temple, jump off, angels will catch you and you’ll be famous. Look in the vanity mirror and say, ‘I’m worth it.’” The last temptation is about power. The devil says, “Jesus, if you are going to change the world, you are going to need power. I have all the power you want. In fact, I run this place. All you need to do is focus on me, and you will have all the power you need. Just look in the vanity mirror and say, ‘I’m worth it.’”

      Lest we think Jesus had an easy time dealing with these temptations, we shouldn’t. We shouldn’t because the language used in the Gospel is that he was tempted, or tested, which meant that the outcome of invitations to distraction was not preordained. Jesus had to work at staying focused. And he does so by returning to the Spiritual GPS, the story of God’s people. He does so because the story offers us a path to faithfulness. Each of these responses is a reminder to Jesus of what is at the heart of faith and faithfulness. Jesus first refers to the Words of God, or the TANAK, meaning the entire word of God because it shows what faithfulness looks like. In the second temptation he focuses on a single faithful response, we don’t test God, meaning faithfulness is following God, not testing God. Finally, Jesus returns to the Shema, which says we are to worship the Lord alone. His responses are, I will not look into the vanity mirror, but I will look to the story. I will look to the words and ways of God.

      You and I can stay focused in the same way if we are willing to allow God’s story to speak to us in a regular and intentional way. I realize that for many of us, the thought of somehow keeping the entire scripture in front of us is not practical. The scriptures are sometimes complex and difficult to wrap our heads around. This is why we, at Everybody’s Church, created the Five Part Story. The Five Part Story is our way of allowing people to remember and focus on the critical pieces of God’s story. They go like this: Part 1 is, God loves the world. We focus on the fact that God’s love for us and all other people is real and alive. Part 2 is, We Wander Far from God. We focus on the fact that we are not perfect, lose focus, and so need to return our focus to God’s story. Part 3 is, God Chooses a Family. We focus on the fact that God has initiated a relationship with us as a part of God’s larger rescue plan for the world; that we have a responsibility to bless the world. Part 4 is, Jesus is the Way to God. We focus on Jesus as the one who shows us the way to be faithful. Part 5 is, the Spirit Helps us Live God’s Love. We focus on the presence of the Spirit who is with us to empower our faithfulness; that when we wonder if we can be faithful, the Spirit is there to help us.

      My challenge for all of us this week is this, to ask ourselves, “How am I practicing focusing on Christ, by remembering the story of our faith?”

E-Faith: Embracing Humility

1/8/2023

Rev. Dr. John Judson
January 8, 2023

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Matthew 3:13-17; Isaiah 42:1-19

      As I have grown older, I have forgotten the power of imagination. I rediscovered it this past week when spending time with my two-year-old grandson. I did so as our grandson took an empty cup, watched me fill it with imaginary ice cream and toppings, and then proceeded to eat it to the last drop. And he didn’t do this just once, but over and over. This morning I want us all to begin with our imaginations. I want you to imagine the shop floor of a modern GM assembly plant. On the floor are all the union members going about their tasks. Then, a door opens, and in walks Mary Barra, the CEO of General Motors. Quickly the shop steward introduces himself and asks if he can help her. Her response surprises him. She makes it clear that she wants to join the UAW and begin by cleaning the floors. The shop steward tells her that this is not possible because she is management, and that management and union are two different organisms. Nonetheless she insists and finally, because she is the boss, he gives in, calls the UAW, hands her a broom, and gets her new career underway. Can you see that event in your imagination? How does it strike you? If it seems out of the realm of possibility you are probably right. But this is exactly what is transpiring in our morning’s story.

      John the Baptist has been baptizing people to prepare them for the coming of God’s Kingdom in and through Jesus of Nazareth. John asks those he baptizes to turn their lives around and live as God intended them to live. So far so good. But then something completely out of the ordinary occurs. Jesus, the one who had been designated by God to be the Messiah, the chosen one, arrives and asks John to baptize him. John is chagrined. John is shocked. He is shocked because in the Jewish tradition it is always the greater that baptizes the lesser. In other words, Jesus was management and John was union. Jesus was the one who ought to be baptizing John and not the other way around. So, John refuses. He refuses to baptize Jesus and insists that it would be inappropriate for John to take on such a task. In that moment something curious happens. Jesus says the following. “Let it be so now. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” With those words John relents and baptizes Jesus. The problem with this moment, and with Jesus’ statement, is that people have never agreed on what Jesus meant by “all righteousness.”

      Traditionally the word righteousness has referred to moral perfection. Those who are righteous are those who are morally perfect. This is where we get the idea of someone who is “self-righteous” because they believe that they are morally perfect and so they can therefore judge all other persons. The problem with seeing righteousness in this context is that it would appear that Jesus was saying he was not righteous before his baptism and somehow the baptism would make him righteous. I would argue that that is how John understood baptism, baptism took unrighteousness people and redirected them toward righteousness. But again, John knows that Jesus does not need to be redirected toward moral perfection; toward the way of God and God’s Kingdom because it was Jesus who was fulfilling this redirecting work. So again, what could Jesus possibly have meant by “fulfilling all righteousness”? I would offer this morning that what Jesus was referring to was righteousness as right-relationships. In other words, to say someone is righteous is not to comment on their moral perfection, but on the fact that they live in right relationship with God and neighbor. It is in this relational context that I believe we can understand what Matthew is trying to teach us.

      It first explains why John changed his mind and baptized Jesus. John did so because he understood Jesus to be saying that God the Father had commanded him, Jesus to be baptized. This is the sense of Jesus living in right relationship with God by being obedient to God’s instructions. Though I would argue John could not have explained why God wanted Jesus to be baptized, it was enough that it was so. John was willing to be humble enough not to argue with the will of the Father and the obedience of the Son.

      Second, this relational view of righteousness also explains why Jesus needed to be baptized. It was because Jesus had to demonstrate what humility looked like. He needed to demonstrate humility because it was only in humility that the world would be saved. I say this because if we listen to the words of Isaiah in this morning’s reading, we read that it is a servant who will save God’s people and save the world. It is a servant who will bring justice. It is a servant who has been sent in righteousness. Therefore, Jesus could not come as a conquering military hero, but that he needed to come as a humble servant. I realize that humility is not thought of as much a virtue in our world, but it is necessary because the great sin of humanity is pride. Not pride in the sense of I am proud of something I have made, but pride that says, I am always right. Pride that says, I know better than God. Pride that says, I don’t need God. Pride that says, I am the smartest person in the world. Pride that says. Don’t tell me I am wrong.” And it is this kind of pride that has left our world looking like it does, full of broken people, relationships, and nations. Humility on the other hand makes a person teachable, guidable. Humility is a willingness to let God teach me, the community teach me, the scriptures teach me, and thus live in right relationship with God and neighbor. This is the humility that Jesus embodies in baptism. He demonstrates a complete humility of allowing an imperfect human being to baptize him, the perfect one. And it is this humility that Jesus wants us to model.

      Jesus wants us to see that humility is at the heart of righteousness. It allows us not only to be teachable and guidable, but it allows us to be open to the voices and lives of others. My challenge to you all this morning is this, take into your hands the bread and cup you have been given for communion this morning. Look at it, turn it around. Then use your imaginations to see in these elements, humility. See in these elements, the humility of Jesus that was and is offered to restore our relationship to God and neighbors. See in these elements, the humility of Jesus becoming one of us to save us. Then remember this moment and throughout the week, ask yourselves, how am I living in this humility in order to help heal the world?

The Christmas Story is Our Story: Marriage and Mission

12/18/2022

Rev. Dr. John Judson
December 18, 2022
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Isaiah 61:6-11; Matthew 1:18-24

    The last couple of weeks have demonstrated to me once again just how complicated, contextual, and cultural the institution of marriage is. There were two things that happened recently that made this clear. The first is that here in the United States there was a bipartisan bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriage that was signed into law by President Biden. This law was passed because both of those types of marriage were dependent not on formal laws but on Supreme Court decisions that could be reversed. This law was not only passed by congress but was supported by a vast majority of Americans. The second thing that happened occurred in Indonesia where their government instituted a new constitution. This constitution included provisions that made adultery and sex outside of marriage, crimes punishable by imprisonment. These laws not only apply to citizens but to tourists, so if you are going to visit Bali, take a copy of your marriage license with you. What is interesting about this section of the new constitution is that it is not only opposed by all Western governments but by many in Indonesia, especially many of the indigenous peoples. It is opposed by them because many of the indigenous peoples do not have formal wedding ceremonies or certificates as part of their culture. They have instead a wide variety of marriage customs which would not be recognized by this new law. What this debate demonstrates is just how culturally conditioned and different marriage can be.

      We can see how culture defines marriage in the scriptures. In the earliest Biblical accounts, there is no mention of a marriage ceremony, only someone became someone’s husband or wife. Later there was polygamy with Abraham having more than one wife and Solomon having some seven-hundred wives. The Apostle Paul proclaims that people would be better off not being married. All of which brings us to our morning’s story about Joseph and Mary. To understand the sense of the story we need to understand marriage in first century Judea among the Jewish population. Marriage was a three-step process. Step one occurred when children were young. The parents of the boy and the parents of the girl would engage them. And please remember that all marriages were arranged marriages. This is where Joseph and Mary are at the beginning of our story. Step two is the betrothal. The betrothal was a formalized marriage contract between the parties involved in the marriage. In a sense this was a pre-nup. Yes, long before this moment in time there were pre-nups. We know this because scholars have found them from Jewish communities in the time of Jesus. The final step was the consummation. This would occur after the wedding feast that could last up to a week. What we watch happen in this story is Mary and Joseph move through the three stages. They are engaged. Then Joseph takes Mary for his wife, this is the betrothal stage, and then we are reminded that the consummation of the marriage takes place after Jesus is born.

      You may be wondering why I am spending so much time telling you about marriage customs in the first century. The reason is that I believe that Matthew deliberately takes his readers through this process because it is an allegory for God’s relationship with humanity in general and God’s people in particular. What I mean by this is that one of the most common scriptural allusions to God’s relationship with humanity and with the Hebrew people is that of husband and wife. Israel is referred to as the one who is betrothed to or married to the creator. When the people of God wander far from God they are described as a wife who has gone after other lovers. The entire book of Hosea is based on this concept with Hosea acting out the part of God who goes seeking his wayward spouse. Later in the New Testament we read references to the church being the bride of Christ. And so, what I want to do over the next few minutes is allow this three-part marriage to teach us about God’s amazing work with the world.

      Let’s begin in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. This was the moment of engagement. This was the moment God created something outside of God’s self that God declared to be good, as God gave it life and purpose. We can see God’s engagement with the creation in that God created human beings to be the caretakers of creation so that creation could fulfill its purpose of being a living, breathing, reality whose presence gave glory to God. This engagement lasts through the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis. In those chapters we watch as humanity attempts to pull away from the one to whom it was engaged. This desire to pull away does not lead to God calling off the engagement. Instead, God proceeds to the betrothal, a betrothal God makes with Abraham.

      It is at the betrothal stage that this marriage allegory links arms with the Christmas story, for it is with the betrothal that Matthew began his genealogy. Remember that Matthew begins his genealogy with Abraham, and it is with Abraham that God makes the betrothal. We generally don’t call it that. Instead, we call it a covenant. God and Abraham make a covenant in which Abraham agreed to worship God alone and to go where God called him to go. God promised to watch over Abraham, give him the gifts of land, offspring, and blessing and, through Abraham and Sarah, bless all of creation. This covenant is almost identical to first century marriage contracts, or covenants. There are things that each party promises to do and not to do.

      The final part of the marriage is the consummation. We read of that consummation in verse 18. “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit.” The consummation of this relationship is somehow mysteriously and powerfully the coming together of God and humanity through the Spirit to bring Jesus into this world. I know that many people have spilled much ink over this passage as they debate the virgin birth. Was it real? What are the physics of it? But in the first century no one would have found this idea out of the ordinary. After all, if God can create the universe, God can bring forth a child to a virgin. The real miracle of the story, I would argue, is not the virgin birth, but what Jesus had come to do, save God’s people from their sins. Notice that it doesn’t say Jesus came to forgive sins, which he does by the way, but that he came to save God’s people from their sins. And what sins are these? To find them all we need do is return to the genealogy and we find them. God’s people wandered far from God by worshipping other gods, by murder, by violence, by child sacrifice, by adultery, by jealousy, by greed, and in a host of other ways.

      What these sins tell us is that the people of God, who were supposed to bless all nations through loving God, neighbor and caring for creation, had lost their way. They had wandered far off the path that God has set for them to fulfill their end of the marriage contract. They had taken peace from the world and brought violence instead. The miracle is that in this child, born in Bethlehem, God has come to bring the people back to the path; to bring humanity back to the path of loving God and neighbor, because when humanity returns to the path God has set, then peace breaks out. This is what Isaiah tells us, that when we are back on the path, righteousness breaks out. Righteousness, meaning living in right relationship with God, neighbor, and creation, will break out, will flourish, will grow like a beautiful garden. And righteousness is what leads to peace. And that is the miracle of this passage because if you are like me, you believe that it will take a miracle to bring peace to the world. If that is so, here it is. In Jesus Christ, peace is possible.

      My challenge to all of us for this week is not to believe in the virgin birth. My challenge is to ask ourselves, if we are on the right path, how are we building peace in the world? How am I being a follower of the Prince of Peace, and making peace a reality in the world around me?

The Christmas Story is Our Story: Return and Renewal

12/11/2022

Rev. Dr. John Judson
December 11, 2022

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2 Kings 25:8-12; Matthew 1:12-17

It was all my Peace Corps roommate could talk about. It was Bird Island this and Bird Island that. Finally, I gave in and agreed to go with him to visit Bird Island, a small uninhabited island off the larger island of Palawan in the southern Philippines. He said he had it all arranged. First, we would travel by ship to Palawan, then hire a “guide” to take us to Bird Island. It sounded like a great plan until we got to the ship that would take us to Palawan. The ship it turns out was a cargo ship that had some room for passengers and all the passenger spaces were sold out so we slept on the deck. After several very warm days we arrived in Palawan. Our “guide” to the island was the one fisherman we could hire to take us who knew where the island was. We paid him half the fare to get us there and promised him the other half when he picked us up three days later. We traveled out aboard his outrigger canoe and watched as the waves became larger and stronger. As we finally approached Bird Island, we noticed that the horizon was growing ever darker with clouds. Our “guide” dropped us off and immediately turned and ran. We came ashore with our food, sleeping mats and no tent. We walked around the island then settled in before the typhoon hit us. For the next 48 hours the rain and wind whipped us and the island. Fortunately, on the third day the storm broke. But it was then that it dawned on us that we had no way to communicate with anyone, anywhere, and what would happen if our “guide” decided not to return? Thoughts of Gilligan’s Island danced in our heads. It occurred to us that we could be castaways without food, water, or hope.

I wonder this morning how many of you have ever found yourselves feeling like a castaway? By that I don’t mean stuck on an island some place, but simply that you feel as if you are living in a new and strange place; a place where nothing seems to make sense anymore; a place where the language is filled with all sorts of terms and phrases you don’t understand; a place where the ground under your feet seems to be constantly shifting; a place where you no longer feel comfortable and at home? If you have ever found yourself in such a place, then you can understand how the people listed in our morning’s story felt. If you have ever felt this way, then the Christmas story is your story because all the names we read a few moments ago felt like castaways and they wondered if they would ever make it home. Let me explain.

We begin with Jechoniah because he is the person who links the story from 2 Kings with our genealogy in Matthew. Jechoniah was the next to last king of Judah. After resisting the Babylonians, he, along with many of the Judeans, was taken captive and deported to Babylon. His brother Zedekiah, who was 21 at the time, was tasked with ruling by Judah’s Babylonian overlords. It was only a few years later that Zedekiah chose to rebel against Babylon. This time the Babylonians were not nice. As we read, they destroyed Jerusalem, burned the Temple to the ground, killed Zedekiah’s sons, then blinded Zedekiah and took him away in chains to Babylon. Along with Zedekiah most of the population of Judah was taken into exile as well. In Babylon the people found themselves as castaways. It was a strange land with a strange language, strange gods, and strange customs. Like my friends and I, they wondered if anyone would ever come and take them home.

It is that sense of being castaways that permeates Matthew’s genealogy. As I mentioned, the genealogy begins with Jechoniah who, with most of Judea, is taken into exile in Babylon. It continues with his son Salathiel who grew up and stayed in Babylon. It continues with Jeconiah’s grandson Zerubbabel, who was able to lead some of God’s people back to Judah. He was able to do so because God sent a messiah who would allow them to return. That messiah was Cyrus the Great of Persia who defeated the Babylonians. Unfortunately, Zerubbabel who is seen by several prophets as a second Messiah, is unsuccessful in restoring Judah’s fortunes and disappears from the Bible altogether. The remaining names in the genealogy are unknown to us. They are names that have been lost to history. In a sense they are those forgotten on a desert island who are seemingly never rescued and pass away without ever getting to come home to the land of promise which their ancestors were promised by God. What I mean by that statement is that the Jews continued to live under a succession of empires: Persian, Greek, Egyptian, Hasmonean, and Roman. Each of these empires spoke strange languages, had strange customs, and worshiped strange gods. The plight of God’s people would then seem hopeless. They would always be stranded. Yet, the genealogy does not end in despair. Instead, it ends with Jesus, the son of Mary and Joseph who is the Messiah. In other words, the genealogy reminds the readers that the one who will take them home, take them to the Kingdom of God, has arrived, and is at work. It reminds them that God was always there. This is also where the Christmas story becomes our story. It reminds us that even when we feel as if we are castaways, that we are not. Christ is always present, making a home for us wherever we are.

I suppose that I could stop here and simply say a bit more about Christ’s constant presence and then call it a day. Yet I believe there is a second aspect of this genealogy that we need to dwell on for a moment, and that is how we should live as castaways. In other words, if we are castaways, what ought we to do? Should we give up? Should we panic? I ask this because what is interesting about God’s people in exile is that they moved quickly from focusing on how to get home, to focusing on how to be at home where they were. We know this because the books of Ezra-Nehemiah, which are about Zerubbabel’s return, tell us that the people in Judea had not celebrated Passover or other festivals in generations. They had not kept the Sabbath or what we call keeping kosher. To use Biblical language, the people had not walked in the ways of God. This all changed in the exile. The people in exile in Babylon began to rediscover what it meant to be the people of God; to live like the people of God; to be faithful as the people of God. And what this renewal brought was joy. The people discovered the joy of loving God and neighbor, of celebrating God’s presence and provision. This renewal did not end in Babylon but continued into the time of Jesus, where the people continued to discover the joy of being God’s people. So, even when they felt like castaways, by focusing on being God’s faithful people they found a home away from home; a home filled with joy..

I believe that you and I are called to do the same. We are called by the Christmas story to continue to renew our faith day in and day out, week in and week out, year in and year out, because in that renewal it doesn’t matter whether we are stranded on a desert island or are at home in front of a roaring fire, we can find our sense of Christ’s presence offering us what we need in every moment. My challenge for this week then is this, to ask ourselves, how am I renewing my faith in such a way that I can continue to find the joy God offers in Jesus Christ?

The Christmas Story is Our Story: Faith and Failure

12/4/2022

Rev. Dr. John Judson
December 4, 2022

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Jeremiah 22:3-5; Matthew 1:6-11

It was just another master’s thesis, or at least so thought the author and his professor. But before Teddy was able to have his thesis finally approved and was allowed to collect his diploma he would be sued, face a parliamentary inquest, be forced to apologize to the nation, admit the conclusion of the paper was incorrect, and then change his thesis. People on the street thought he should have known better. But Teddy Katz truly believed he was right, that during Israel’s war for independence the Israeli forces had committed a massacre in the village of Tantura. There had long been rumors of such an event and Katz wanted to discover the truth. So he interviewed not only Palestinian survivors but one of the soldiers who participated in the actions in Tantura. They confirmed his suspicions. Unfortunately for Katz, this narrative of a massacre went against the official narrative of the government which was that the residents voluntarily fled Tantura and therefore Israel could occupy it as abandoned. It would be difficult to describe the furor that followed. Ultimately, Katz apologized and changed his conclusions, which was a shame because he was correct. He was proven correct by a recent documentary that interviewed most of the remaining Israeli soldiers who were at Tantura who admitted on camera that they had indeed killed around two-hundred men, women, and children and then buried their bodies under what is now a parking lot.

I do not tell this story this morning to shame Israel. In what Israel calls the 1948 War of Independence and the Palestinians call the Nakba, or Palestinian catastrophe, both sides engaged in the killing not only of combatants, but also non-combatants. I tell the story instead because it reminds us that every nation and people write their own histories in which they are the good guys; in which they are the heroes, and those they either defeated or lost to are the evil Empire. Sometimes these narratives are true. Sometimes they are not. But no nation ever truly wants to remember the moments when their actions demonstrated that they might not have been very good guys. And it is that concept that makes what we read this morning so amazing. This concept is what makes the Christmas Story far more than just a lovely tale about angels, a star, and a baby. I say this because the genealogy we read this morning is an indictment of the people of God. It is so because it contains a list of Judaic kings who represent the good, the bad, and the ugly of Israelite history. Let me explain.

This genealogy contains good kings. These are Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah. These were the faithful kings. Each of these kings inherited a wayward people who had wandered far from the path that God had set for God’s people. The nation had forgotten its purpose as we discussed last week of loving God, loving neighbor, and caring for the world. These kings worked hard to not only protect the nation but to realign the nation with this purpose, which was contained in its founding narrative. Then there were the bad kings, the names of which will surprise you. These are David, Solomon, and Rehoboam. I realize most of us have been taught to revere the first two of these kings. But what we need to do is to examine how they are referenced. David is mentioned as the father of Solomon by “the wife of Uriah.” This seemingly obscure reference reminds us that David committed adultery with Bathsheba and then had her husband Uriah killed to cover up the affair. David and Bathsheba’s subsequent son, Solomon, while praised as being wise, enslaved his people, married foreign women, and worshiped their gods. His son, Rehoboam, split the kingdom. Finally, we have the ugly kings, Ahaz and Manasseh. Each of these kings oppressed the people, built altars to foreign gods in the Jerusalem Temple, and attempted to stamp out the worship of YHWH. Manasseh even reinstituted child sacrifice. The question becomes, why does Matthew mention this lineage when it could have been avoided as it is in Luke, or not mentioned at all as in Mark and John? I believe that there are three important reasons.

Reason number one is that it demonstrates why a savior is needed. Let’s assume for a moment that Jesus’ lineage was composed of nothing but good guys who always did the right thing; who always led the nation into fulfilling its purpose of loving God, loving neighbor, and caring for creation. Why would they need a savior? It would appear that they were fully capable of being good on their own. They would have no need for a messiah to save them from their sins and redirect their lives back to purposeful living. The Law, the Torah, was all they needed to be faithful people. What this lineage reminds Matthew’s readers though was that the history of God’s people was one of faithfulness and failure. It was a mixed bag of the good, the bad, and the ugly. It was a reminder that if God’s people were to accomplish their purpose, they needed help. They needed a messiah.

Reason number two is that this allows the Christmas story to become our story. Now I can only speak for myself, but my life has not always been one of complete faithfulness. There have been times when I have failed to live up to my purpose of loving God, loving neighbor, and caring for creation. I realize this probably does not apply to any of you gathered here this morning. However, I will ask if there is anyone else here this morning who feels the same way that, perhaps sometime this week, you might have said, done, or thought something which would make God just kind of shake God’s head? Any of you? Ok, glad I am not alone. So, what this story does is remind us why we too need the one born in a stable; the one come to set us free; the one come to forgive; the one come to help us fulfill our purpose. This story is our story.

Reason number three is that this story reminds us of God’s love. When my wife, Cindy, was helping to proof the bulletins this week, she looked at me and said, “You do realize that the candle we are lighting is the ‘love’ candle and your sermon title is ‘Faith and Failure’?” My in-deft reply was, “Yep.” My yep, was a recognition that above all, this is a story of God’s love. I say that because God would have been perfectly justified in giving up on the people of Israel and even God’s purpose for humanity, yet God refuses to do so. God’s love and covenant faithfulness were so great that even in the times of the bad and ugly kings, God’s love never failed. And the same can be said for our lives, that God’s love never ends for us. Even when we mess up, even when we fail in living out our purpose, God’s love does not fail. God’s love in and through Jesus Christ continues to be made real in us, that we might begin again to love God, love others, and care for God’s creation.

The challenge that I want to offer you for this day then, is to ask yourself: Am I allowing God to love me in both my faith and failures, such that I can love others in the same way?

Filtering by Faith

11/20/2022

Rev. Bethany Peerbolte
November 20, 2022

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Song of Songs 2:8-14; Mark 7:14-23
      Quick Greek 101 refresher before I read the second verse or else this is going to sound like a really strange verse for me to choose for today.

      By the time Jesus began his ministry, language had become a cultural phenomenon and was regarded as a valuable art form. This is the age of Philosophers, poets, and storytellers. The masters of language were the ones who could take a gigantic concept and express that meaning in the fewest words. They would do this in different ways like combining multiple words to make a new more meaningful word or weaving together intricate metaphors. Language had become a dance between the speaker and the listener. The listener’s part was to bring their own experiences to infer deeper meaning than words could ever express.

      I think Jesus can easily be put into the category of a master of language. The sheer amount of meaning Jesus is able to pack into a parable, a short story, sometimes no more than a sentence long, is proof enough that Jesus knows how to use words well. A simple way for Jesus to pack more meaning into less language is to allow the listener to do their part of the dance and infer through logic that Jesus is talking about more than what he says. For example, to allow the opposite to also be true, the unspoken vice versa. Jesus does exactly this with The Beatitudes. Jesus says “blessed are the merciful'' and when we hear that, our logic also infers that the unmerciful are not blessed. That opposite expression isn’t explicitly said but by specifically linking blessings to being merciful Jesus allows those listening to infer the opposite is just as true. The Gospel of Luke confirms that Jesus meant the beatitudes to be interpreted both ways. Luke includes the opposite statements which reinforces that when Jesus taught the beatitudes, whether he said the vice versa statements or not, he meant for people to conclude the opposite, unspoken statement, was also true. We see this come up a lot in the way Jesus teaches. He likes to say the outlandish thing to get our attention but what he really means for us to learn is well, vice versa.

      Now we are ready to hear this verse from Mark. (Read from Bible)

      Okay, so you can see why I needed to set that verse up a little. These probably aren’t the parting words you expected me to pick today. BUT…as we just reviewed, we can take Jesus’ shocking word choices and infer in an equal and opposite direction to get a lesson that is a little more appropriate for the day.

      Jesus says that it is what comes out of a person that defiles them. He says this because the religious elite has just called out the disciples for eating with “defiled” hands. They didn’t wash their hands before they ate. SO picture it, Jesus is sitting with a crowd of people. People who are sick because the water they have access to is polluted. People whose spouses abandoned them and the only work anyone will pay them to do is sex work. People whose hope and joy have been shaved away by an oppressive form of government and defiled hands is what the religious leaders focus on as the problem!? It’s no wonder Jesus chooses to give this teaching with such inflammatory language. They are oblivious to the human reality right in front of them, gentle words are not going to get the point across.

      Jesus uses their word “defile” right back at them. There is nothing outside a person that can defile them, the things that come out of us are what defile us. WOW. Tto say this statement to this crowd: “What is outside you cannot devalue you.” To say this to people who ingest polluted water every day, whose work is universally considered profane, to say that your life circumstances do not in any way make you less worthy of love, and that God highly values you to people whose outer experience is filthy with injustice is a powerful statement for Jesus to make. There is nothing outside a person that can defile them.

      And here is where that Greek lesson really amps this teaching up. If the things outside us do not factor into our worthiness, then if you do have clean water, if you do have a job people admire, if the system supports your hope and joy, those things also do not factor into our worthiness. Life circumstances do not make us any less, or any more valuable to God.

      Then Jesus says the things that come out of us are what defile. He gives the disciples a colorful list of examples to show that, yes, there are terrible things in this world but they are not the result of what goes into our bodies; the traumas of this world are created in the hearts of humans. What do we DO when we see polluted water? What does our heart dream up in that situation? What comes out of us is what we need to be concerned about.

      And if what comes out of us can defile us then it must be true that what comes out of us can also “de-defile” us……or maybe the opposite of defile is just …. “file”? The English language is confusing. I looked up antonyms of “defile” and here are some options for us: “honor” “upgrade” “protect” “sanctify” “cleanse” What comes out of us is what brings an upgrade, it is what brings us honor, what protects us.

      If what comes out of us can defile us, then what comes out of us can also be cleansing.

Recently I took a class taught by Rev. Susan Beaumont to delve deeper into her book, “How to lead when you don’t know where you are going.” The pandemic seemed like a good time to study the topic. For one of the classes, Susan led a kind of breath prayer, but it was completely different from any breath prayer I had ever been taught. A breath prayer is when you repeat a bible verse or affirmation or selected words and you connect the words to your breath in and breath out. The most popular one is: “breathe in God’s light” and “breathe out the shadows.” All the breath prayers I have ever been introduced to follow the same format. Breathing in the good stuff and breathing out the bad stuff.

      Well, this time Susan guided us to breathe in stress, grief, and pain and breathe out hope, peace, and comfort. Exactly opposite to what I expected. The practice is called Tonglen (tong-lin) which is Tibetan for “sending and receiving.”

      After a few breaths, it occurred to me that switching what I was focused on as I took in a breath and what I let out, essentially made me a filter. We were filtering the negative and producing the positive. It was so empowering. To focus my breath, my source of life, on taking in that which I saw as wrong in the world and being the filter through which only good could re-enter the world was an incredible feeling. Seeing myself in the role of a filter brought all my attention to the fact that I have a role to play for real. To walk through the muck of this world and do what I can to clean it up.

      It is exactly what Jesus is saying to the crowd and the disciples. A person cannot be defiled by the muck around them even if it enters into them. Now if that person is producing more muck, we have a problem. Our role, our place in creation is to actively upgrade this world. Jesus confirms that we have the capacity to live among the muck in such a way that we produce something altogether different, something honorable, clean, and upgraded.

      A few of you have said to me “We have been so lucky to have you here,” but what I hope you understand is that I am a product of the things that came from you. This church is not affirming because I am, I am committing the next chapter of my ministry to inclusion because you have lived out the value of inclusion in a way I didn't realize was possible until I was here. When I came to First Presbyterian Church of Birmingham I didn’t see myself as an entrepreneurial leader. I became that because of the time I spent with you. The way you balance a love of tradition and passion for innovation is not something churches do well and yet….here you are. From you came the encouragement for me to experiment and fail and dream huge dreams. I am so lucky to have you…here.

      Now look, I get why searching for new staff and leaders is distressing. I have heard the stories and church lore that make it hard to hold on to hope. But this church did not become what it is today because of the leaders and staff who have been in the building. This is Everybody’s Church because of what comes out of your hearts. The care you pour out is why this church has such a great impact on places like Alcott. The regard you share is why this church has become a brave space for so many to authentically be themselves. The love that comes out of you is why people walk into this building and immediately feel like they are home.

      If you find yourself worrying about what Everybody's Church will become, know that it will become that which comes from within you. Everybody’s Church will always be what you nurture in your hearts and how you show up for one another.

      You have absolutely upgraded me during the time I have been here, and it has been my honor to be your Pastor. Thank you.

Rediscovering Jesus: Joy Sharer

11/13/2022

Rev. Dr. John Judson
November 13, 2022

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Exodus 17:17; John 7:37-39

It was pure joy. There is no other way to describe it. Only moments before, thousands of people had been holding their collective breath, waiting to see what was going to happen. Then the ball leapt off the bat soaring toward deep right field. Slowly it began to ark toward the foul line. The right fielder was moving at what seemed like light speed in the same direction. Then as the ball neared the ground the fielder stretched out his glove as far as was humanly possible, and the ball fell into it. In that moment, dozens, hundreds, thousands, and perhaps more than a million people leapt from their seats and experienced a moment of pure joy. The Houston Astros had won their first “non-cheating” World Series. The players leaped into one another’s’ arms. They surrounded their manager, Dusty Baker, and celebrated his first ever World Series. Justin Verlander could finally let loose; the crowd went wild. Two days later, schools let out, businesses allowed their employees time away and Houston celebrated the victory with an ecstatic, joy filled, parade. It is a moment we in Detroit can only dream about. Let me ask though, how many of you have ever had one of those moments, one of those moments of absolute joy, not necessarily about sports, but at any time in life, a moment of pure joy? How many of you would like more of them? If you do, then you have come to the right place because joy is what our Jesus story is about this morning.

I realize that nowhere in John’s words that we read this morning is the word, joy. Even so, I would argue that joy is the focus because of context. How many of you learned about context clues in school? We learned how to use them to decipher the meaning of unfamiliar words. The same theory often applies to Biblical texts. If we take them out of context, we often miss their central meaning. That is true of this morning’s story because the context is that Jesus is speaking during Judaism’s most joy-filled celebration, the Festival of Booths. The Festival of Booths was Judaism’s Mardi Gras. People would travel to Jerusalem from all over the Roman Empire and celebrate. There would be parades, ceremonies, and elaborate rituals. All of these would be done in a festive, joyous manner. The reason for the joy is that the people were celebrating two things. First, they were celebrating the harvest. The reason it is called the Festival of Booths is that people would build booths out in the fields in which to stay while they harvested. But the booths were not simply intended to be convenient places to stay, they were to remind the people of those who journeyed through the wilderness on their way to the Land of Promise and God’s faithful provision along the way.

Second, they were to remember God’s gift of water from the rock, the story about which we read this morning. This story was the basis for one of the greatest and most joyous celebrations of the festival. Priests would come down from the Temple carrying ritual water jugs, walk out of the Water Gate in the wall of Jerusalem, and go to the pool of Siloam. There they would fill the pitchers with water and return to the Temple, and then pour the water around the altar, in full view of the people. The priests would not travel alone on this ritual journey. They would be accompanied by thousands of people singing, dancing, waving palm branches, and being lifted to a state of almost rapturous joy. And I believe it was in that moment, sometime during that joy filled parade that Jesus spoke these words, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink.” In other words, what Jesus was saying was, if you find joy in this ritual, you haven’t seen or experienced anything yet. Come to me and find true joy. Come to me and find absolute joy. Come drink it in because I am the one, the Word, who brought not only life, but joy.

Joy is intended to be one of the central aspects of our faith. The word is used almost two hundred times in the scriptures. And the image of joy is to be something akin to the joy Astros’ fans felt and the people at the Festival of Booths felt. It is supposed to lift us out of the funks in which we may find ourselves and into a fuller sense of being alive. The questions this raises then might be, where do we find this joy? Where can we go or what can we do to experience it? The answer can be found in this morning’s story. It begins with Jesus giving us joy through the Spirit. This is what Jesus meant when he said that water would flow from the hearts of his disciples, meaning joy would be present in us just waiting to pour out. The discovery of joy continues in the growth of gratitude, gratitude toward God. I say this because the people at the Festival of Booths should not have been grateful or joyous. They lived in an oppressive economic and political system. They were regularly singled out for persecution. Their lives were economically and physically tenuous. Yet they found gratitude and joy. They found it by remembering all that God had done for their ancestors in the wilderness, all that God was doing for them in the harvest, and all that they believed God would do for them in the future. They were grateful for past, present, and future. And this gratitude showed itself in joy.

This my friends is where we can find joy as well. We can find joy in the growth of our gratitude. There is a problem with this concept though because we live in a society of ingratitude, because we have become a society of dissatisfaction. What I mean by this is that rather than being a society of gratitude for what we have been, are being, and will be given, we have become a society that is constantly dissatisfied with what we have had, have, and probably will have. My best example of this is a person who called 911 this past week because the pork they had been served at a restaurant was too pink. It didn’t matter that they had someone waiting on them, cooking for them, and cleaning up after them, they were dissatisfied and expected the police to fix it. And though this is an extreme example many of us have experienced dissatisfaction. We buy something, contract for something, order something and it doesn’t meet our expectations and we become dissatisfied, and it is this constant dissatisfaction that robs us of our joy even when we have so much to be grateful for. We have clean water, warm or cold water, food in our pantries, a roof over our heads, the freedom to gather for worship, the freedom to vote without fear, the ability to speak our minds, and above all, a God who loves us. We have a God who become one of us to allow us to slake our thirst for joy in God’s infinite love, mercy, and grace.

What I want to do this week is to challenge all of us, me included, to grow our gratitude. The way I want to do that is to have each of us find three things for which we should be grateful … just three. Then, each morning offer God a prayer of thanksgiving for those three things, and then remember them throughout the day with gratitude. Then allow some joy to begin to build up so that as Jesus quotes the scripture, “Out the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living waters.” Or in other words, out of our hearts will flow rivers of joy in which the world can bathe.

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