Full time faith, 12.29.13

Matthew 5:13-19

13“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot. 14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all in the house.16In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.


17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.


John 15:9-17

9As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.


12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. 16You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. 17I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.
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A lot of the ways we talk about Jesus focus on big moments. If you read the Apostles’ Creed or the Nicean Creed, two landmark statements of faith not only for the Presbyterian Church, but for the church universal, all they say about Jesus’ life is that he was “conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.”


Those are all important things, but they are not the whole story. Jesus lived a whole life between those moments. His incarnation, his becoming human for us was not just his birth. His sacrifice for us was not just his suffering and death on a cross. His life also tells us about God’s priorities and it shows us what it means to live a life in sync with God. That whole life is our example, not just the highlights.


There’s a feeling about our lives too that can go along with the highlight reel Jesus. We can think of our life mostly in terms of big moments too: our birth, graduation, our wedding, the birth of our children, et cetera. We might think of our faith journey in moments too: memories of Sunday school, confirmation, when we first claimed our faith, the moment we were “saved.” The big moments are important, they provide the outlines of our lives and give shape to something that often feels pretty squishy, pretty nebulous, but they are not the whole story or even the most important part.


The biggest part of our lives, and Jesus’ life is the little stuff. While the major moments are easier to pick out, ultimately, the day to day direction of our life is more important. While we can call single episodes defining moments with some honesty, the day to day details are what make the definition true or false. If I say I’m a Christian, then not just the big moments, but also the small, even unnoticed details should say the same thing. Otherwise, I’m a hypocrite, not a Christian.


Jesus didn’t just appear to die, and he didn’t just come to free us from sin in a flash so we could have a ticket to heaven. He came to show us what a faithful life looks like, to show us how to live here and now in this troubled, but also sacred world. If we follow Jesus, our goal is for our lives to match his life, not perfectly, not exactly, but in general. If Jesus is light in the darkness for us, we are called to be light in the darkness for others. As the Father sent Jesus into the world, Jesus sends us into the world now.


One thing we see when we look at Jesus’ life is that the whole thing fits together. In other words, Jesus lived with integrity. His birth in a barn was strange, but it wasn’t disconnected from the rest of his life. His birth was about taking a step from heaven to earth, and choosing to step into human history in a particularly humble way.


The rest of his life showed the same concerns; he lived a humble life and focused his ministry on the poor. His teachings talked about putting God first, about the last becoming first, about the care of others in all our decisions. He died a humble death like a slave or a rebel, hung between two thieves, one of whom he was welcoming into God’s kingdom. The big moments and the consistent teaching in Jesus’ life speak the same message: love God and love others.


Our goal is the same: not only to speak the faith of Christ but to live it as well. Not only to live our faith in our worship, our “saving moment,” but in our everyday choices, at work, at the bar, taking our kids to activities, in our family relationships.


The point of everything we do in church is not a moment when someone says, “I believe, sign me up.” The point is to produce and nurture lives of faithfulness that will touch other people with God’s love and grace. The goal is the overall trajectory and integrity of our lives. The goal is day in and day out loving faithfulness.


Our passages don’t use those words, but they do share that idea. Jesus tells his disciples they are the salt of the earth, which means they have to stay salty; they can’t just be salty at the beginning. He says they are the light of the world. That means they need to shine their light so people can see their good deeds and give praise to God. That means they have to do good deeds regularly, not just when people are looking. They need to shine light for others all the time, not just when it’s convenient.


The key word in the passage from John is “Abide.” That means, stay or remain. Jesus tells his disciples to abide in his love by keeping his commandments. That means we’re not just supposed to feel Jesus’ love at Christmas and Easter; we’re invited to rest in Christ’s love all the time. Along with abide, we see the word commandment; in other words, resting in Christ’s love isn’t passive, we don’t just receive love, we also actively seek it out through a life of obedience.


The other key idea is matching Jesus’ life of love. Jesus says, “As the Father has loved me, so I love you; love one another as I have loved you.” Jesus invites the disciples, he invites us, to take his life as an example for our lives. We see something special in Jesus. There’s something compelling, something inviting about his life; his story catches our attention. We’re called to be filled and transformed by his love, and to live that love for others in our own lives.


Jesus lets the disciples know that the love he’s talking about isn’t a warm fuzzy feeling, but full of courageous and sacrificial action: “No one has greater love than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” He’s right up front with them that their love for others, like his love for them, is going to cost them dearly. The disciples at that table won’t all die for their faith, but they do all put love into action as the guiding commitment, the consuming passion of the rest of their lives.


That means we can expect hardship to be part of our life too. Our faith is going to cost us something. The life we live as Jesus’ disciples is not a spectator sport, but an active engagement with other people in a loving way. Different Christians live that out in different ways, but true discipleship can’t be just a small part of our life.


When I think about Christians laying down their lives for their friends I think about Christian Peacemaking teams. These are groups of Christians trained in non-violence, who go to unstable places in the world to support people there. Christian Peacemakers from the US travelled to Iraq before and after the US invasion to put themselves where US bombs were going and show that the church in the US cared.


Similar ministries happened in Columbia at the height of the violence there. Christian accompanists stood alongside Columbian peacemakers to show that they were not alone. These folks risked their lives to show the love of Jesus for those in harm’s way.


I think also about civil rights protestors in the American south who put their bodies on the line for freedom and dignity. I think about the women’s prayer movement that took to the streets to protest the Liberian civil war and to pray for peace. Through Christian and Muslim women praying, marching and working together, the Liberian dictator Charles Taylor was thrown out and hope for peace under a democratically elected president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, is alive and well.


These are examples of Christians laying down their lives to put their faith into action. In many of these cases the ministries were not only moments of courage and risk, but also consistent commitment to a faithful struggle. The women of Liberia sang and prayed publically for peace for more than a year. Many of the civil rights leaders in the US put the rest of their lives on hold to commit to the movement. Accompanists in Columbia trained extensively and then moved to Columbia for months or even a year.


More to the point, these actions are the fruit of lives of committed discipleship. Even if they are highlights, they rise out of preparation and practice so that the Christians are ready to lay down their lives when the moment comes. The lives of true disciples are consistently about love; remarkable episodes of faithfulness are part of the wider story, not disconnected moments.


All that sounds very heavy, and discipleship is serious, life-changing business. It’s also joyful. Jesus says he’s giving his disciples this commandment to love so that their joy may be complete. Following Jesus is hard sometimes, but it’s also wonderful and freeing. When we decide to follow Jesus we are set free from chasing worldly success. We’re set free from the stress of measuring ourselves against other people in terms of wealth or accomplishments. We’re free to simply love other people, to serve other people, to listen, to care. We’re free to rest in the love of Jesus and to let that love shine through us to the world.


You and I have somehow been drawn to Jesus. Something about his story and his love attracts us, so here we are. In some way we have all decided to follow Jesus, but maybe we haven’t really committed to that yet. Maybe we’re still trying to follow with part of our life. If that’s the case for you, if you think of your faith as one small part of your life you probably feel stress and tension. You probably feel unsure about how your life fits together, and phrases like “complete joy,” don’t describe how you think about your faith and life.


Jesus calls us to follow, not as one activity we do, but as the core and meaning of our whole life. When we truly live as disciples that discipleship shapes everything else we do. Jesus tells us that’s going to demand sacrifice, but also that it’s going to bring us joy. So today I invite you to take another step in your commitment and choose to follow Jesus with your whole life. I invite you to bow your head and pray with me for a new birth of Christ within us, a new Christmas of commitment and discipleship and joy. Let’s pray:



Loving Jesus, you came to us as a baby born in a manger. Your whole life told the story of love and commitment, commitment to the world and love especially for the outcasts. You taught your disciples that love through your example and you invited them to follow. Help us follow you today and every day. Help us commit fully to your example of love, courage and sacrifice. Fill us with the joy of discipleship, the joy of community, the joy of an integrated life wholly dedicated to love. Guide our steps and claim our heart for your own. We pray these things in your precious name as we seek to truly make you our Lord, amen.

praying and living boldly, 4.21.13

Psalm 4

¹Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress.

Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer.

²How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame?

How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies? Selah

³But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself;

the Lord hears when I call to him.

⁴When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent. Selah

⁵Offer right sacrifices, and put your trust in the Lord.

⁶There are many who say, “O that we might see some good!

Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!”

⁷You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.

⁸I will both lie down and sleep in peace; for you alone, O Lord, make me lie down in safety.

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            The sermon series we’re doing right now is about becoming the church. We started that broad topic the week after Easter by reflecting on how the disciples recognized the risen Jesus when he broke bread, and how we still meet Jesus in the sacrament of communion. Last week we looked at Jesus’ time with his disciples after he rose from the dead. He taught them how to understand the scriptures so they would be ready for their mission to share the good news of God’s love with the world.

            This week we’re talking about prayer, both how we connect to God on our own, and how the church as a community connects with God to strengthen it for its mission. First, a little background for our passage.

            The story of Acts starts right where Luke’s Gospel leaves off. Jesus has risen meets his disciples. He gives them a mission to proclaim the good news of God’s love to the whole world. Then he rises into heaven and the disciples return to Jerusalem to wait for the Holy Spirit. Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus the Holy Spirit appears in the room where they are praying and fills the disciples with power. They minister to those around them, telling the good news in every language. As people hear the story of God’s love in Christ, they join the disciples in following Jesus.

While many believe, not everyone is happy with this new movement of faith. Like with Jesus’ teaching, many of the religious leaders are not comfortable about what the disciples had to say. They thought with Jesus’ death they had finished with his disturbance, but as the disciples keep preaching about Jesus, it’s clearly not done.

            One day Peter and John were walking into the temple when they saw a man who couldn’t walk begging for help. They healed him in Jesus’ name and the man not only started walking, he also ran and jumped with joy. A crowd gathered to hear how this miracle had happened. Peter explained that it wasn’t because they were more holy or wise than anyone else, but because of the power of Jesus Christ.

            As the crowd gathered, the religious leaders noticed what was going on, so they arrested Peter and John. The next day they interrogated them about what had happened. Peter told the story of healing the man through the name of Jesus and went on to proclaim how God’s love was working through Jesus even though the leaders had killed him.

            The leaders weren’t thrilled with that accusation, but they also couldn’t think of a way to punish Peter and John since they had just performed an obvious miracle in public. The situation was difficult because they couldn’t deny what had happened, but they wanted to minimize the impact and keep people from talking about Jesus. So they ordered Peter and John not to talk about Jesus anymore.

            Now, Peter and John were like most people. They preferred not to be beaten and threatened, but they also had a clear calling from Jesus to spread the word, and God’s power was working through them so they knew they were on the right track. So they were honest with the leaders. They told them God had commanded them to keep preaching about Jesus, so even though they heard the leader’s command, they had to follow God’s calling instead. With that, the leaders beat them and sent them on their way. That’s where our story for today picks up.

Acts 4:23-31

²³After they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. ²⁴When they heard it, they raised their voices together to God and said, “Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth, the sea, and everything in them, ²⁵it is you who said by the Holy Spirit through our ancestor David, your servant: ‘Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? ²⁶The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers have gathered together against the Lord and against his Messiah.’ ²⁷For in this city, in fact, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, ²⁸to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

²⁹And now, Lord, look at their threats, and grant to your servants to speak your word with all boldness, ³⁰while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” ³¹When they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God with boldness.

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            There are times I have a hard time relating to the early church. There’s a power in their faith life that I have never experienced. I’ve never prayed and felt the Spirit shake the room. I’ve never healed anyone through prayer, at least not in such an obvious way. It’s easy to feel a great distance between the power of the early church and the lack of drama in my own spiritual life.

            At the same time, what I love about this passage is that the disciples are honest, humble and very clear about their role. They look right at the threats against them. They know that the religious leaders can kill them or beat them or lock them in prison. They don’t ask God to protect them from danger. Instead, they ask for boldness to speak God’s word courageously in the face of danger.

            They don’t ask for eloquence, or persuasiveness, or church growth. They don’t ask for fame or comfort or long life. They know what their mission is: their mission is to share the story of Jesus and the love of God with the world. They don’t know how the story is going to go from there, but they are open and available to God’s plan.

            There are a lot of things we can focus on when we talk about prayer, but today I want to look at prayer as openness to God in word and action. We don’t have to know where we’re going as a congregation or as individuals, but if we want to be faithful to God’s calling, we need to be open to God’s leading along the way. Part of how we do that is with specific moments of prayer. It’s helpful to set aside periods of time to talk to God and to listen to God.

Often in my own life that’s frustratingly quiet. I don’t hear God’s voice or see visions of where I’m being led. But when I make space to quiet myself, sometimes I find that I just know things. Sometimes one path I’ve been thinking about feels right. Sometimes in a conversation I find myself saying the right words, even if I didn’t know they were right before they came out.

Learning to pray, 1.29.12

Psalm 73:21-28

²¹When my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart,
²²I was stupid and ignorant; I was like a brute beast toward you.
²³Nevertheless I am continually with you; you hold my right hand.
²⁴You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will receive me with honor.

²⁵Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire other than you. ²⁶My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. ²⁷Indeed, those who are far from you will perish; you put an end to those who are false to you. ²⁸But for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord God my refuge, to tell of all your works.

Luke 11:1-13

He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” ²He said to them, “When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. ³Give us each day our daily bread. ⁴And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”

⁵And he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ ⁷And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ ⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

⁹“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ¹¹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? ¹²Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? ¹³If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

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            This week we continue our series on Christian discipleship by talking about prayer. Prayer is one of the most important ways we nourish our relationship with God. It’s also an area where many of us feel inadequate or lost. We worry we don’t have the right words or that we’re “doing it wrong.” We feel like we send our prayers out into empty space and never hear anything back. Or maybe we want to pray but somehow the day slips away under a sea of tasks; days become weeks and we can’t think of the last time we really prayed.

            We’re going to have another sermon in a couple of weeks focused on the prayer at the heart of this passage from Luke. That sermon is a skit about the Lord’s Prayer, and I think you’ll really enjoy it. It will offer you another perspective on the familiar prayer, which is a good thing. The great thing about having a prayer from Jesus is that Jesus keeps teaching us to pray even now. The down side is that when we pray the same prayer week after week it can become just words sliding through our mind instead of a life-changing connection to our God.

            Today’s sermon is more of an exploration of prayer in general. I have questions about prayer myself; I certainly don’t have all the answers. At different times in my life I’ve had different prayer routines; other times I haven’t prayed much at all. There’s still plenty about prayer that doesn’t make sense to me.

            For one thing, what’s our goal in prayer? Are we trying to change God’s mind by praying for something? Do we pray to call attention to a situation that’s on our hearts so God will notice and come to the rescue?

            The Bible suggests that sometimes that’s exactly what happens. While I believe God is watching all the time, in scripture crying out to God has a powerful way of getting God’s special attention. When Israel was enslaved in Egypt, God must have known, but it was when Israel cried out under the burden of their oppression that God responded by sending Moses into action.

When Moses taught Israel how to live in the Promised Land he warns those with money to be very careful about how they treat the poor. When they loan money to a poor person and take their cloak as collateral, for instance, Moses tells them to return the cloak before nightfall because that might be the person’s only protection from the cold night air. If they return it, the person will be comfortable at night and ask God to bless their kind creditor. If the lender holds on to the cloak to protect their loan, the poor person shivering in the cold might cry out to God in their suffering and God would be angry with the selfish lender.

So even though God is paying attention all the time, there’s a mysterious power in crying out to God in our need. The Bible suggests that the cry of the oppressed is especially quick to travel to God’s ears, which is a sobering thought for us, since we live in the richest country on earth.

But what does prayer change? Is God counting prayers like votes to decide what do do? If more people pray for the Giants than the Patriots, will they win the Super Bowl? Do the best prayers count for more than a quick: “Help me Jesus?”

            Jesus doesn’t talk about how God makes decisions; I think that is above our pay grade. He does talk about how God listens to prayer, though. He specifically says God doesn’t care about eloquence or length. Fancy words don’t catch God’s attention.

God especially isn’t interested in prayer that lifts us up at the expense of others. In my favorite parable about prayer Jesus tells a story about a religious leader and tax collector who went to the Temple to pray. The religious guy thanked God for making him better than other people, especially better than the tax collector. Then he went on to praise his own piety, as if God needed to know.

The tax collector prayed simply and humbly for mercy. Jesus tells his listeners that the tax collector went home justified, but the religious leader didn’t. Elsewhere Jesus tells his listeners not to be “heap up empty phrases” when they pray. He clearly rejects the idea that longer prayers catch God’s ear. It’s not the theological sophistication, or length of our prayers that makes them beautiful to God.

There have been some studies that show that patients in the hospital with people praying for them did better than patients without prayer, even when the patients didn’t know they were being prayed for. At the same time, often we pray for healing for someone and it seems like no healing comes.  Sometimes God brings healing beyond physically curing diseases. Other times we are left without an obvious answer to our prayer.

Prayer can change the world around us, but most often it does that by changing us. When we pray, especially when we pray the way Jesus taught us, we grow more connected with God. Both in the Lord’s Prayer and in Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane before his arrest and execution the heart of the prayer is submission to God. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray for God’s will to be done on earth as in heaven. In the Garden Jesus prayed that he wouldn’t have to suffer, but then he prays that God’s will would be done, not his.

Prayer is about getting in synch with God. It’s about opening our heart to what God wants and praying for God’s will to come about in the world. As we pray for God’s will we are changed. We start trusting God more as we recognize that God is wiser than we are. We start wanting God to be more in charge so we pray less about getting our own way and more about finding God’s way.

Prayer also changes us when we pray for other people. If you’re having a hard time with a particular person, if you can’t seem to get along or you can’t let go of something they have done to you, start praying for that person. Spend a few minutes in prayer for the person every day lifting up the hardships they face and desiring the best for them.