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Sunday, March 07, 2010

Guilt by Stacy Spehn
Third in the Series: Where is God When It Hurts?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Psalm 51:10-12

10Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and steadfast spirit within me. 11Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your holy spirit from me.  12Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.

The title of this message is “From Guilt to Serenity.”   It is my strong belief that we thrive much more as human beings when we are serene rather than feeling plagued with guilt.  I hope this message will give you some ideas for how to deal with guilt when it inevitably comes up. Regarding this issue, I can only speak from my own experience.  As an overly sensitive people-pleaser, I know more on this topic than I would care to admit.

In the past week I have been delving into what psychiatrists and ministers have to say about guilt and shame.  It is pretty complicated and they have many different ways to language things:  from terms such as excessive and neurotic guilt & shame to having a severe conscience.

Most ‘experts’ say that guilt is the uncomfortable feeling we have when we feel we have done something wrong, (whether real or imagined) - while shame is when we feel that we ourselves are bad or wrong.  When we feel shame or intensive guilt, we begin to question our worth as a human being.  For the purposes of keeping it simple, I am going to mostly use the term guilt, recognizing that it is often intertwined with shame. 

I was intrigued by a study that kept being cited on internet articles in reference to guilt.  Roy Baumeister, a psychologist and professor, did a study on guilt in 1991 at Case Western Reserve in Cleveland.  The study claims that the average person spends approximately 2 hours per day feeling guilty.  And for 39 minutes of that time, people feel moderate to severe guilt that may greatly limit their abilities.  I don’t have enough information about this study to know how accurate it is, but nonetheless, I have a hunch that guilt is an issue for many of us. 

I feel that guilt can be a helpful reminder to us that we may be ‘off course,’ but I would have to say that, in my own experience, guilt often goes into overdrive.  When this happens we can become paralyzed and consumed in self-absorption.  This kind of guilt is anything but helpful.

Whenever my guilt button is triggered it is often overly sensitive.  It doesn’t gently guide me by saying “Honey, you didn’t do so well in that moment.  Let’s try and do it differently next time.”  No – It says “How COULD YOU?  You care about NO one but yourself!  You are hopeless and selfish and you will never change.  You are a bad person.” 

This may sound dramatic, but I think those are often the messages we are sending ourselves.  Whether we got these messages from our parents or society, it doesn’t really matter.  It may be good at some point to look at how this harsh inner voice developed, but our major job is to find a way to stop berating ourselves every time we make the smallest of mistakes.  It would be one thing if this actually helped us to become more loving and joyful people, but I don’t believe that it does.  

Guilt can be a signal that we have our priorities ‘off.’  I think we sometimes don’t question why we are doing anything.   I rarely feel guilt when I am acting out of wanting to serve God or to be a helpful and loving addition to the planet.  But, unfortunately, I often have far less noble intentions.  I may be using the situation to feel more secure or to look good or to become successful.  And then – OUCH! -  Here comes that overwhelming guilt.  Rev. Dr. Linda Anderson, a Unitarian Universalist minister, describes it like this, “Guilt often lies there like undigested fried dough, wreaking havoc on the inside and inevitably on the outside as well.”   

I just reread Rabbi Kushner’s book, How Good Do We Have to Be:  A New Understanding of Guilt and Forgiveness.  Rabbi Kushner says, “The question is not whether or not we will make mistakes……Of course we will… The question is, how shall we deal with our imperfection, our sense of inadequacy?  How do you relieve guilt?  How do you cure shame?”

Rabbi Kushner is asking some good questions.  I would also like to ask us this.   How do we allow the voice of guilt to be a helpful guide that can show us when we are a bit ‘off,’ so that we don’t become tremendously ‘off’?

It is clear from the psalms that people have been struggling with guilt for a VERY long time.  Let’s take a look again at Psalm 51.  Prior to verse 10, the psalmist has been asking for forgiveness.  At this moment, he is asking to be literally transformed by God.

I was reading a commentary on Psalm 51 by Rev.Dennis Pratcher.  He speaks about the fact that, in Hebrew, the "heart" is a metaphor for the seat of the intellect, the center of will and decision-making, along with it being the emotional center.  He states that the "spirit" is a metaphor for the entire person in terms of the motives and intentions that lie behind actions.  So, the psalmist is basically asking to be made whole in thought, word and deed.  In these verses, he is asking God to transform, restore and sustain him.  Pratcher says that “The prayer of the psalmist here is for the dynamic and creative presence of God that will bring the change for which he cries.”  

In our moments of paralyzing guilt, we can do the same.  We can let God know our anguish.  I call this “getting real” with God.  We may be ashamed to tell anyone else how guilty we feel, but let’s not do that with God.  It is my strong conviction that God loves us without any conditions.  Sometimes I picture God just waiting for us to share our burdens, so that God can delightfully lift them from us.  This lifting may not be immediate.  We have a part to play in this too, but, God can help us to heal and grow and transform. Why wouldn’t we want this kind of loving assistance? 

It can be very hard to experience any joy when we let unresolved guilt accumulate in our lives.  In 12 –Step Programs they have a process to deal with this – making amends.  This can be an incredibly daunting, but worthwhile task.  I don’t think it is the only way.  I think we can also make what is called a “living amend” and decide to do it differently in the future. 

Maybe we can start with the little mistakes.  When we notice we weren’t as loving as we could have been, we could immediately call the person and apologize, rather than being frozen in our guilt.  We could also write about it and then aim to do better next time or we could give it to God through prayer – “transform this unloving moment and help me to respond differently next time, God.”  The point is to notice it and deal with it when it comes up and not to stuff it.  Dealing with it may mean just recognizing it and being aware of it.  Our soul just wants us to take notice.  “Hey, hey!  Remember me?   I am the one who signed on to remind you when you aren’t being as loving as you can be.  I am not here to make you feel worthless.  I just don’t want you to forget what is important. ”

The Serenity Prayer has been very helpful to many people with addictions who often are plagued with guilt.  God – Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. 

When the guilt feeling comes up, we can look at the situation and ask ourselves “Am I able to change anything right in this moment?”  If we can, then let’s do it.  If we can’t, then let’s accept that fact.  Some of our guilt can be irrational and it is good to notice if we are taking on someone else’s stuff.  If that is what we are doing, then we can pray for the willingness to let it go.

Part of this process is accepting that we are not perfect people.  We are people progressing on a path.  Sometimes this progress is messy and ugly and painful.  The guilt can be a reminder that we want to do better, but let’s not allow it to paralyze us.  What if we were to accept our imperfections and give ourselves incredible leeway to make mistakes and learn and then aim for being a little better?  We are often so hard on ourselves.  We want to go from being completely self-absorbed to being a Mother Teresa - in one day!! 

Can we accept that through some helpful friends, a supportive faith community and an immensely loving God, slow and steady progress can be made?  Do we have the patience to see ourselves through this messy maze of life?  I believe that God has infinite patience, but we may not want to infinitely postpone our joy. 

I’d like to close with another Rabbi Kushner quote:

“To be whole before God means to stand before God with all our faults as well as all of our virtues, and to hear the message of our acceptability. To be whole means to rise beyond the need to pretend that we are perfect, to rise above the fear that we will be rejected for not being perfect. And it means having the integrity not to let the inevitable moments of weakness and selfishness become permanent parts of our character.”    

God – Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. 

 

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Grief and Loss
Second in the Series: Where is God When It Hurts?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Mark 14:65-72

65Some began to spit on him, to blindfold him, and to strike him, saying to him, “Prophesy!”  The guards also took him over and beat him. 66While Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came by. 67When she saw Peter warming himself, she stared at him and said, “You also were with Jesus, the man from Nazareth.” 68But he denied it, saying, “I do not know or understand what you are talking about.” And he went out into the forecourt. Then the cock crowed. 69And the servant-girl, on seeing him, began again to say to the bystanders, “This man is one of them.” 70But again he denied it. Then after a little while the bystanders again said to Peter, “Certainly you are one of them; for you are a Galilean.” 71But he began to curse, and he swore an oath, “I do not know this man you are talking about.” 72At that moment the cock crowed for the second time. Then Peter remembered that Jesus had said to him, “Before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

For me, this is a hard sermon to write.  Not just because the subject matter is heavy but because I am worried that there might be people who come here tonight to get answers to their grief.  I don’t have them.  I have thoughts, ideas, and suggestions.  What I don’t have is a magic potion that will make grief go away.

I could be very clinical about grief and tell you all about the five stages of grief.  Tell you about denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.  I could go into each of them in depth.  All of that is useful but I don’t know if that is what people come to hear a preacher talk about.  I think people come to hear about hope.  I think people come to hear good news.  I think what I might try to do is dispel some of, what I feel, are myths about God, the Church and grief and loss.  Your experience might say otherwise.  But let’s tackle them together.

First I want to talk about the fact that grief and loss are NOT just about death.  There are all kinds of grief/loss.  Besides the grief of losing someone there is the grief of losing your health.  So many people have had to deal with the grief that comes with losing your health.  This is also not confined to the first ones we think of.  Just the loss of not being able to do the things we once did can be painful.  I dread the day that Hudson beats me at stuff, especially physical stuff.  He is already better than me at a lot.  But I have heard it said that the first time your son beats you at basketball that is a tough day on a lot of dads.  In Mitch Albom’s book, Have a Little Faith, the Rabbi tells Mitch, “Mitch, people don’t mind getting old.  People mind BEING old.”  There is sadness to that loss. There is a grief.

See I think there is more grief in society than we know.  When I moved from L.A. to Orlando, I went to go see my Pastor.  I was in a funk I just couldn’t shake.  He listened to my story and then he said. “Jerry you are grieving. You are grieving your lost dreams. You dreamed of going to Hollywood to make it big and now you have left without having achieved all you hoped to achieve there. You are grieving the loss of your dreams.”

DEAD ON.  You don’t have to go to Hollywood to have that happen, or dream of a professional sports career. You could have dreamed of being CEO or to have your own business or to make partner by the time you were 30. You could have had the dream of having a big family and for one reason or another that didn’t happen.  You could have dreamed of being married by the time you were 25. When these things in life don’t go as we planned, we grieve their loss. We go through the same stages. Make no mistake. This is real grief. We need to walk through it the same way.

When we do deal with grief we have to allow ourselves to be angry.  The truth of the matter is the one that we are often angry with is God.  Wow doesn’t that feel wrong?  Still worried about the lightning bolt hitting you?  I shouldn’t be angry at God. Or do you think I should be much more spiritually advanced than that. The truth is that the Bible shows us, ALL OVER THE PLACE, that it is okay for us to be angry at God.  It happens all the time in the Bible.  

There is a whole book in the Bible called Lamentations. Jeremiah is traditionally associated with writing it although that probably isn’t the case. It was probably an anonymous author or authors.  It is made up of five mournful poems and is all about grieving. The Bible makes it clear that it is okay to be angry with God. God can handle it.

Job let God have it. The Psalms let God have it. Jeremiah let God have it. In Jeremiah 20:7, Jeremiah says, “O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.” It is not just about yelling at God. It goes deeper than that. It is about being honest with God. God knows how we are feeling anyway. What God wants more than anything is relationship with us.  But God wants honest relationship with us. It is like when we are in a relationship with someone and we ask if anything is wrong and they say, “Nothing.” If they say “nothing” and it takes a certain tone….you KNOW it ain’t nothing. God knows when it ain’t nothing, too.  We might as well be honest.

We need to be honest with each other, also. So often people come to church and when people ask how we are doing we say, “fine,” but we aren’t fine. If we aren’t fine, we need to stop saying it. I love the title of a book I read not too long ago. It was called, No Perfect People Allowed. That is such a problem in church. When did “great” and “fine” become the only acceptable emotions in church? People keep thinking it is a place for perfect people, people that don’t hurt or grieve.  If you can’t come to church to grieve, where can you go?

When my brother died in 2001, I found out about it late on Saturday night, at 2:30 in the morning. I was in church that morning at the 8:00 service.  I needed to be in a place of love, a safe place. A place I could just be. I didn’t have to pretend. Life was pretty lousy that morning. And people I talked to knew it. I let them love on me. I let them be Christ for me. We need to be reminded that we can have other emotions in church besides, “I’m doing great.”

That’s fine for the people grieving, but how do you respond to that?  People would love to help but always think, “What do I say to someone grieving?”  You know what?  You don’t have to know.  Sometimes you just need to be with them.  Be present. Just…be.  

Parker Palmer tells the story in his book, Let Your Life Speak, about the time he went through a bout of depression. He said no one had the right words. You know who helped him the most? The person who helped him the most would just come over and rub his feet, wouldn’t say anything, just rub his feet and just be with him. As much as we don’t want to believe it, that is being Christ for someone.

In our scripture today we see grief, Peter’s grief. A lot has happened prior to where we pick up the story. Jesus has already been betrayed by Judas. He has been arrested as a result and Jesus tells Peter about the betrayal Peter is going to commit, the one we see in our story today.  Not only did Jesus say Peter would betray him, he said ALL of the disciples would betray him.  Many people know that Peter said he would never betray Jesus, but what people forget is at the end of Mark 14:31, after Peter claims he would never desert Jesus, it says, “…and all of them said the same.”  They all made the same promise and they all ran and bailed on him.  Within the same chapter, they had all gone away and we see Peter broken down and grieving.  He wasn’t grieving death.  He wasn’t grieving his health.  He was grieving about how he had let Jesus down.  How he let himself down.  He was grieving the fact that he didn’t live up to his highest ideals and potential.  He was grieving his weakness. There are probably at least a few of us here that have felt that way at one time or another.

Now there is no question about what Peter did was wrong.  Heck he was lying about knowing Jesus WHILE Jesus was getting beaten up!  The point is what happened AFTER the betrayals.  Judas, after betraying Jesus, hung himself.  Peter went on to head the church.  

It is not whether you will or will not have grief and loss in your life.  You will.  If you haven’t yet, talk to any number of people in this room.   All you have to do is look at the prayer cards.  Some day you will experience grief.  The Bible tells us this in John’s gospel.  The question is, what will you do after you begin to experience your grief?  

Of the five stages of grief, depression is one of the most dangerous.  It is here that we are darkest before the dawn.  It is the last stage before acceptance.  What we chose to do after we experience grief is what’s important.

There is no timeline. There is no, “They should be over it by NOW.”  One of my professors and dear friends, Larry Graham, told me after my mom died during my first year of seminary, “Jerry, there is no ‘right way’ to grieve, only your way to grieve.”  I tell this to every family for whom I do a funeral service. Pain translates a number of different ways. Be gentle with each other when you or someone you love is going through grief and loss.

We see in Peter’s story tremendous grief.  What we don’t see is Jesus’ love and grace that he gives Peter at the end of the Gospel of John.  It is here that we realize that God is with us in the grief and loss, that God will walk with us, and that Jesus will be there when we come out the other side, with open arms and joy in his heart.

 As the title of the biography of Jim Morrison says, No One Gets Out of here Alive.  As Jesus says, “In this life, you will have sorrow.”  We are never promised a life without grief and loss.  What we are promised is that God will be with us and that we will never have to face anything alone.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Burnout
First in the Series: Where is God When It Hurts?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Mark 6:31-32

31He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. 32And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves.

So Harvey and I are doing a sermon series during lent. We are covering life events that many of us have to deal with everyday in one form or another. They are things that we will see as we move through the weeks, that Jesus and his disciples had to deal with as well.

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at where God is when it hurts. We will be looking at burnout and grief and loss. We will be looking at guilt and failure and loneliness, suffering and pain.  

Because church should be about good news! The good news is that we don’t leave you there. In addition to bringing these things into the light, we will, also, look at what we can do, as people who follow Jesus, to confront these events in our lives when they rear their head.

This week we will begin by looking at burnout. What causes it, what are the symptoms, who’s at risk, what the Bible has to say about it and how to come out the other side.

Who's at risk?

Technically, everybody’s at risk. But according to the Mayo Clinic, you may be more likely to have job burnout if you are, someone who identifies so strongly with work that you lack a reasonable balance between work and your personal life. This applies to pretty much EVERYONE I know, in most fields. The second one is that you try to be everything to everyone. This would include every mother in the room. Your job is monotonous. Now we can add the entire postal service. You feel you have little or no control over your work. You work in a helping profession, such as health care, counseling, teaching or law enforcement.

What are the causes of job burnout?

These are some of the things that can be the cause of burnout. Just because you have these things in your life doesn’t mean you are going to burnout, but they are things we now know lead to burnout. 

  • Lack of control.  Maybe you're unable to influence decisions that affect your job, such as which hours you'll work or which assignments you get. Perhaps you're unable to control the amount of work that comes in.
  • Unclear job expectations are another possible cause. Maybe you’re uncertainty over what degree of authority you have at work and/or not having the necessary resources to do your work.
  • Dysfunctional workplace.  Anybody work in a dysfunctional workplace? Maybe you are working with an office bully, being undermined by colleagues or having a boss who micromanages your work.
  • Mismatch in values is one that a lot of us feel. If your values differ from the way your company does business or handles employee grievances, it will wear on you. This was the case with me when I was at the Improv and working at a talent agency in Beverly Hills. I would come home with stomach pains every night.

What are job burnout symptoms?

Personally, I don’t believe if you have these things it means you are suffering from burnout, but I also don’t think they should be ignored. Ask yourself these questions.

  • Do you find yourself being more cynical, critical and sarcastic at work?
  • Do you drag yourself into work?
  • Have you become more irritable and less patient with co-workers, customers or clients?
  • Do you feel that you lack energy?
  • Do you have a hard time laughing at yourself?
  • Are you tired of your co-workers asking if you're OK?
  • Are you disillusioned about your job?

We live in a time when the pace is always go, go, go. Laura and I had friends that worked for Disney Studio’s and the expectation was that you are always to be working. The saying was, “If you don’t come into work on Saturday don’t even bother showing up on Sunday.” It would be funny if it wasn’t true.

We are a country that values the hard work ethic and if you take time off to regroup or catch your breath, you are considered weak. The church should be modeling healthy lifestyles, but we don’t. We have caught ourselves adapting to the world rather than modeling for the world a healthy balanced life.

Not all countries have nearly the same problems we have regarding this issue of burnout. Juliet Schor, a Harvard University Professor, in her book, The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure, noted that since the late 1960s, the average American has added 160 work hours a year to his/her schedule. That is a month of 40 hour weeks. Via a national study, she found that 40% of Americans now work more than 45 hours a week on the average, with a large share regularly putting in 70 - to - 80 hour work weeks. Twenty percent said job pressures have caused them to neglect important family needs and that their marriages have suffered.

There is another side to this story. The sad truth of today and today’s economy is that so many people don’t have job burnout because they don’t have jobs. This leads to a different kind of stress which can also lead to emotional burnout. Many of the same elements are there: lack of control, lack of energy, cynicism, irritability. Life is monotonous.

So what does the Bible have to say about all this? This is not a new phenomenon. Jesus wasn’t exactly a slacker. They had a lot going on. There were feedings and healings as well as preaching and teaching. Every time you turn around, the gospels indicate that there were crowds wanting Jesus and his time. What did he and the disciples do to hold burnout at bay?

First let’s take a quick look at Mark’s gospel as a whole. Mark is the first gospel written. Early dates given are around 65, later dates around 75. I say we split the difference and go with 70. With references to the second temple being destroyed in 70, a lot of scholars say it was written shortly thereafter.

The passage that we looked at today happened right after we read the news that John the Baptist was beheaded and right before they fed the 5,000.

Now, we don’t know if Jesus and the Disciples heard the news of John the Baptist but if they did, right off the bat we have two huge factors in contributing to burnout, stress and over working. This passage tells us they didn’t even have time to eat! Anyone ever have a day when they didn’t have time to eat? There wasn’t a Chick-fil-A drive-through in Galilee at the time (oddly, I was just there a few months back….there are none there now, either.) Has anyone been so busy they had to go through a drive-thru to get a meal in the last month? The last two weeks? The last 24 hours?

So our scripture takes place between these two events. Jesus was trying to get time to rest. He knew how important this was. We find our story in chapter six of Mark. In my research, one of things I discovered is that when Jesus goes off to the mountains to pray, it happens IN CHAPTER SIX, in every gospel. We also see it in other places in Mark as well. In Mark 1:35-37 we hear, “…he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” In Mark 7:24 we see, “…he set out and went away…he entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there.” Ever want to get away and have no one know where you are? Alone time. This was something that Jesus valued. He knew it was important and because it made it into the gospels, the writers knew it was important for us today.

Jesus knew, even as the Son of God, he had to take time for himself, leisure time, quite time, prayer time, call it what you want but Jesus knew the importance of it.

The Greeks took the question of leisure very seriously. They thought of leisure as a state of freedom from the necessity of labor. Leisure was something used to cultivate the mind. It was a time of contemplation, which was the best way they believed for people to find truth. For the Greeks, leisure was the basis of the free man’s whole life.

How often do we take time to just do nothing, time to just think and read and relax and enjoy or time to pray and connect with God? I have been on vacations that I have needed a vacation from.

One of the best remedies for burnout is getting time away. I know there are some very busy people in here, but I have to ask; are you busier than Jesus? Is your work more important than the work of Christ? If the answer is yes, then you will want to hear our sermon on narcissism. 

In writing this sermon I realized I needed to take some of my own advice. That’s why I will be taking a few days off in the next two weeks to recharge my battery. Two weeks from now, Stacy Spehn will fill in for me. Stacy is going to be preaching on guilt…don’t miss it…you will feel guilty if you do! I will be taking time to think, pray, read and slow down.

Find time to recharge.  Find time to relax, and read and pray and be alone. If it was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for you.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Love

By Rev. Jerry Herships

I Corinthians 13:1-3, 13

1If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

Few tasks for a writer or speaker are more harrowing than to try to write or speak about love. The audacity! Who am I, or who is anyone else, for that matter, to try to explain (in under 15 minutes no less!) what love is and how we are to relate to it. I like what scholar and social critic Bell Hooks says about love, “The word ‘love’ is most often defined as a noun, yet…we would all love better if we used it as a verb.”

At first I thought I would speak on love regarding romantic relationships.  After all, it’s Valentine’s Day.  The problem with that is, if you aren’t in a romantic type of loving relationship, you can feel left in the dust.  So I broadened the topic.

I want to talk about two ways to love.  Ideally one mirrors the other.  I am talking about God’s love for us and our love for others.

Our passage today comes from Paul’s letter to the community at Corinth. As we have mentioned before, Corinth was kind of a rowdy place. It was a port town. Think of it as New Orleans with a heavy splash of Vegas. Paul visited the city twice, in 51-52 AD and then again a few years later in 58. Our passage today comes from the first of two letters that we know that he wrote to that community. This letter focuses on how hard it is to be a loving Christ like person in a city like Vegas, I mean, Corinth.

Paul knew the people struggled with a lot of the same things that you and I do. A lot of it has to do with focus. What are we focusing on? Paul is telling us that it really doesn’t matter WHAT else you have if you are missing love from your life. Now I don’t mean romantic love, I mean love for all mankind. Brian McLaren has a great modern day paraphrase of our scripture passage in his new book, A New Kind of Christianity. Here is how McLaren restates Paul’s ideas.

Though I interpret the biblical text with state-of-the-art hermeneutics and preach sermons with flawless homiletics, though all my theologies are systematic, all my books, blogs, and podcasts scrupulously orthodox, and my books always best-sellers, without love I am static on a radio or an error message on a computer screen. Though I can show decadal church growth in the double digits and raise millions of dollars in building funds, though I have files full of testimonials from people saved, healed, delivered, and blessed through my ministry, without love I’m just another clever, two-bit purveyor of goods and services in the religious-industrial complex. Though I have worldwide impact, traveling by private jet and broadcasting on cable, satellite, and the internet, though my budgets balance and my seminaries are bursting with beautiful and handsome valedictorians (all of whom are above average in every way), and though presidents invite me to the White House and consider me a “key person,” without love I am nothing.

This says to me that we have one mission here on earth. I again steal the words of McLaren because I think he puts it simply and beautifully: Become Christlike people, people of Christlike love. When we do this, all the rest falls into place.

Christlike love is harder than it looks….and I think it can look pretty hard. Christ and through Christ, God doesn’t love conditionally. That means there is no specific way of “acting” to win God’s love and grace. If there were, it wouldn’t be grace. It would be as my dad, the lawyer, would say, “Quid pro quo” which is Latin for “something for something.” That’s not unconditional love. That’s a transaction, a negotiation, an exchange of goods.  It is not unconditional love.  

Actually as a result we are being redundant. True love, God’s kind of love, the kind Paul is talking about, is always unconditional. So really anything calling itself love that relies on certain behaviors of the other is not the kind of Love that God gives us. The kind of love God gives us is Christlike love. This is our goal as well. Isn’t it nice to be given something you don’t deserve? That you don’t have to work for? Something that feels like it just came out of the blue? What an awesome surprise. This is so contrary to the way of the world. But it doesn’t have to be. We can love like Christ if we get two things out of the way: Ego and fear.

Last week I talked a little bit about EGO standing for Edging God Out. Our ego wants desperately to keep us focused on anything BUT the love of God. Focus on our past, our future, our intellect, our accomplishments, our acquisitions. It wants us to focus on changing and controlling others, proving them wrong and us right.

It is, also, fine when we focus on what WE are doing wrong, our lack of accomplishments or acquisitions and all those stupid mistakes from the past, or how unsure we are of the future. In any way and every way we can find to condemn ourselves, the ego is all for it.

See it doesn’t matter to the ego if we focus on how great we are or how unworthy we are.  Both bring about the desired result, not focusing on the love of God. When we let the ego lead this dance, the ego is fine with pumping more quarters in the jukebox.

The idea that God’s love is so great, that it is freely given, is almost beyond understanding. There might be some of you thinking, “well that’s great for most people, but I have done (or continue to do) some pretty rotten things.” Understand, God doesn’t “approve” of doing bad things; it is just that it won’t get in the way of God’s love for you.  Paul tells us in his letter to Romans that NOTHING can get in the way of God’s love for you, even bad behavior, lousy thoughts, stupid spending and overeating. Nothing.

Also know that even though I preach it, I ain’t got it yet. Ask Laura, she’ll tell you. I beat myself up pretty good and pretty often. My friend Dave calls them Demon Committee Meetings. I want to believe all of this but it is hard. And when I catch myself thinking it is hard, I know I am leading with my ego. It is my ego that wants me to believe that God couldn’t love ME. The ego says, “Yea other people, I get that. But YOU??? Seriously?  Come on. You know better.” Don’t… listen… to that… voice. You are loved by God, regardless of your job status, health status or relationship status or anything else.

Fear is the other biggie that keeps us from experiencing the love of God and sharing that love with others. In many ways Fear and ego are one and the same. Fear is one of the tactics that it uses to get us to stop looking to God.

We are fearful that we are doing SOMETHING wrong. The way we work, the way we worship, the way we eat, the way we live, the way we exercise.  When we find ourselves focusing on our mistakes, we are living in fear. It can even extend to our relationships. If we have been hurt before, we, for some reason, believe it will be the same way next time. This often makes us afraid to even TRY new relationships. It is why people who have been hurt by the church hesitate to come back. They think it’s going to be the same old, same old. Sadly, many times they are right. But that is not reason enough to stop trying.

Many an author, much wiser than I, has said that fear is the opposite of love and I believe that. A lot of people believe that hate is the opposite of love but I believe hate is just the byproduct of fear. We fear something and as a result we want to get rid of it. Fear is the first step towards hate. Letting go of fearful thoughts and actions leads us to love.

And when we let go of Fear and embrace love, we are embracing the essence of God. 1 John 4:8 puts it exactly this way. In that verse it simply says, “God is Love.” Not God is like love or God looks like love. GOD IS LOVE.

My Valentine’s Day wish for everyone here, including myself, is that we can release our ego’s need to control and be right and keep us scared. We can escape from relying on our intellect and our actions and our materialism and our thinking that we are not deserving of God’s love. I wish that we can release fear, fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of not being enough, and instead receive the love that God has for us. The grace God has for us and the certainty that we are enough in God’s eyes and that in itself is enough.

Sunday, February 07, 2010

The Road:
Part 4: What to Pack; Gratitude, Compassion, Forgiveness

By Rev. Jerry Herships

GRATITUDE: Thessalonians 5.16-18

16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

FORGIVENESS: Luke 23:34

34Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

COMPASSION: 2 Corinthians 1:3   

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.  (NIV) 

We are finishing up our sermon series taking us down this road we call life. We are at the point where, after unpacking the things we don’t need last week, envy, anger, and resentment, we now have the room to pack really good stuff.  We are going to look at three Bible passages that illustrate each one of these three concepts. Consider these the ABC’s of being happier as we walk down this trip called life.  They are:

ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE

BELIEF IN THE POWER OF FORGIVENESS

CARE OF COMPASSION

GRATITUDE: Thessalonians 5.16-18

16Rejoice always, 17pray without ceasing, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

The Roman philosopher, Cicero, believed that gratitude is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all others. So it is, for that reason that we begin with gratitude.

Science has recently discovered scientific proof that when people regularly engage in the systematic cultivation of gratitude, they experience a variety of measureable benefits: psychological, physical and interpersonal. What is even more impressive is friends, family, partners and others, who surround them consistently, report that people who practice gratitude seem measurably happier and more pleasant to be around.

Gratitude is about being thankful for what you have been given but it is more than that. An additional, essential aspect of gratitude is the idea of receiving something that we don’t even deserve. Some people call this undeserved merit. It was given out of compassion or generosity or love. We in the God business, call this Grace.

Elizabeth Bartlett is a professor of political science. At 42 she received a heart transplant after having a heart attack and medicine failed to prove helpful. When she wrote about her journey, she said that gratitude didn’t end with being thankful. For her it also included the desire to do something in return. This was not from a place of obligation but rather a desire to “pass it on.”

Paul speaks in this passage about being grateful no matter what the circumstance. He speaks of being thankful in all things, in good and in bad. In another passage he closes by saying, I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me.

Ben Stein, a comedian and one time presidential speech writer gave an address at Ithaca College.  He said we’re all heirs and heiresses to a society of freedom and plenty that most of us did absolutely nothing to earn.  It just fell in our laps. This is not to say you can’t be proud of the things you accomplish, but realize it is in conjunction with the help of others. It is when we realize this that gratitude begins to take root.

Dietrich Bonheoffer wrote, in ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.

According to one study quoted in Robert Emmons book THANKS!, the three primary factors influencing what is called the chronic happiness factor are intentional activity, set-point, and circumstances. Intentional activities are things like gardening, exercise, socializing, things we can control. Set-point comes from our genes and circumstances and things that happen to us. While we tend to think that our happiness is determined by circumstance, win the lottery vs. bad accident, this research suggests that circumstances make up only 10% of the determining factor.

Paul tells us to pray without ceasing and to give thanks in all circumstances. Gratitude is at the center of enjoying our trip.

FORGIVENESS: Luke 23:34

34Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”

As hard as it can be sometimes to show gratitude, I think the main reason for this is that we just forget. We forget to think the words “thank you.” Very few people I know don’t want to be unthankful. They do want to be thankful. They just get so busy…they forget.  

Forgiveness is different. A lot of people may say they want to forgive. They even say I WISH I could forgive. It is not that people forget to forgive. They remember they SHOULD forgive, they just can’t. In fact it is this remembering that set things off. Maybe you are one of those people. Again, we have Jesus as our perfect model. He was unjustly convicted, spit on, tortured, and then hung on a cross to die. It was while dying on the cross that he pleads to God to forgive his oppressors.

Often our scenarios aren’t so dire and yet they are still serious. People hold on to grudges for years. Lewis B. Smedes was a theology professor and author. He wrote one way to know if your forgiveness is genuine is this.

“You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who hurt you and feel the power to wish them well.”

I have had a couple of people in my life that I said I forgave but really at the time, I don’t think I could have passed Smedes’ test.

At 4:14 pm on Feb. 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela walked out of the detention center he called home for 27 years. And he forgave his jailers.

Bishop Desmond Tutu talks about the Craddock Four. The police ambushed their car, killed them in the most gruesome manner, and set their car on fire. When, at a hearing, the teenage daughter of one of the victims was asked: would you be able to forgive the people who did this to you and your family? She answered, “We would like to forgive, but we would just like to know who to forgive.”

While forgiveness is hard, it is the first step towards healing.

COMPASSION: 2 Corinthians 1:3   

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.  (NIV)

This is what happens when we break down the definition of compassion. The pre-fix com literally means with, passion comes from the root patient which means, one who suffers.  Compassion literally means to be with those who suffer.

I had to get clear in my own head the difference between GRACE and COMPASSION. They are close but different. GRACE has to do with forgiving someone who doesn’t deserve forgiveness, undeserved forgiveness.  COMPASSION is about sympathy for the suffering of others, often including a desire to help.

When it comes to situations like the work we do in Civic Center Park, we are showing compassion. Grace comes from God and is between God and us. Grace deals with God’s love and forgiveness that is given even when we don’t think we deserve it.

I will close with a story of something that happened to me this past week.

I went to a bar in downtown Denver that I had never been in before.  I had heard about it because of its age. It was built in the 1920’s and I am a sucker for nostalgia bars and old saloons. It was rundown and less than fancy but I went in the late afternoon and got a beer at the bar. The wonderful thing about sitting at the bar is that you can always, ALWAYS, get into a conversation with the person next to you if you want to. The man next to me and I started watching an old western playing on the TV.  We started laughing about how bad it was. He said I looked familiar.  I told him it was my first time in there. He said, “Nope, I never forget a face, or a laugh.” 

As we started talking he began telling me that he was a poker dealer. I didn’t even know that was a “job.” He showed me his gaming license cards for Vegas and Biloxi. He told me he was taking a break from dealing now and had just gotten out of the hospital and was focusing on healing up.  Great guy, good conversationalist and I enjoyed talking with him. I finished my beer and I started to get up to leave when he told me if I ever wanted to learn how to play poker he would teach me.  He had told me earlier that he had taught Dom Deluise, Gwyneth Paltrow, and a few other show biz types. He told me I could make a lot of money. I told him that probably wasn’t a good idea, considering my other job. When I told him what I do for a living he stopped and stared at me. He said, “That’s where I know you from.” He paused and his eyes watered up a bit. He said, “I don’t have any health insurance and after I got out of the hospital I was completely broke and had nowhere to go…you gave me a sleeping bag in Civic Center Park about two weeks ago. I think you might have saved my life. I can’t thank you enough.”

Being with those who suffer, there’s no greater gift we can give. I walked out of that bar feeling as good as I have ever felt. That is the key to living a compassionate life, when we are willing to suffer with others, rather than making both of us worse, we often find that through just being with them we both feel better.  

The suffering is less when it is shared. God never causes suffering. Rather, as we see in the scripture today, God is with us through any and all suffering. When we show compassion, we are living the characteristics of Jesus who modeled God character for us.

Gratitude, Forgiveness, Compassion…three things you should always make sure you have room for as you travel down your road. 

Sunday, January 31, 2010

The Road:
Part 3 What to Unpack; Anger, Resentment and Envy

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Ephesians 4:31-32

31Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.

Galatians 5:26

26Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

We are moving into the third part of a four part series. We have discussed the road we are on, what we are driving to get us down the road, how to keep ourselves fueled up and ready to go and we looked at the things that point us in the right direction and show us the right path to get us where we want to be.

For the next two weeks we are going to look at those things we want to take with us as we move on down the road we call life and we are going to look at the things we want to leave behind. This week we are just going to focus on those things that we might be willing to leave by the side of the road, the things that weight us down on the trip and things that burden us as we make our way.

I know there are probably lots of things that weigh us down, things that make traveling cumbersome and quite frankly, less fun. I am only going to focus on three things, that in my experience, I would just as soon not pack. Those things are Anger…Resentment…Envy.

Looking at anger we see nothing that comes as a big surprise. Anger has been at the core of lousy trips through life since the dawn of time. Our letter to the Ephesians tells us to “put away” anger. It gives us a very good reason. Be kind to each other as God is kind to us. If we are truly to model Christ like behavior, kindness must be at the center.

I wish it was that simple. Actually, it is that simple. The thing is it’s not easy. So much of the time, these days, I find the things that make me angry are really not those things about which I am SAYING I am angry. I think this is true for most people. It is never about what it looks like it is about. When I realize this is the case with me and I assume that is the case with most people, I tend to cut folks a little more slack. I realize I probably have NO idea what is going on in their life and that the anger that I am seeing might be directed at me…but probably isn’t completely about me. By cutting folks a little more slack, I am doing something that is at the core of leading a Christ like life.

Cutting people slack when they don’t deserve it goes by another name, Grace. Grace is giving people forgiveness when they don’t deserve it. To meet Anger with grace is one of the most loving things we can do. This also means that we need to be willing to be happy instead of being right. This again is simple but not easy. Even though it is not easy, it is our choice. I say we need to leave anger by the side of the road. It is the first thing we need to unpack.

Resentment is the second cousin of anger. It literally means, "that which is hatched by heat.” It is usually the heat of anger which sits under the surface. This is another reason why we need to release anger because if we don’t it can sit under the surface and hatch at a later time. Resentment is the slow burn of anger. We often think of anger as being sudden bursts. Resentment is anger on an installment plan.

The sad thing is that you can be resentful towards someone and they may never know. You know who will know? You’ll know. More often than not, it is the person that is holding the resentment that truly suffers. The people who were unjust sometimes don’t even know they did anything wrong at all. In the mean time, you are growing your very own ulcer. This is not the abundant life that Jesus wants for us.

Talk about a guy that had every right to be angry and resentful. I think we often feel resentment when we feel we aren’t appreciated. Few people in history were less appreciated than Jesus. And yet, he released resentment and anger. From the CROSS Jesus tells us, “forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.” This is the ultimate act of unpacking resentment and anger. Leave resentment behind and you will find the trip a whole lot lighter.

I heard Darryl Burton speak last week. He was recently exonerated after being wrongly imprisoned for 24 years. He came and spoke at St. Andrew on forgiveness. He said he wanted to be better not bitter.

Last but not least is Envy. Paul’s letter to Galatians points this out specifically. Envy goes by a more biblical name, Coveting. This is not wanting something that someone else has. If I see a person with a 1967 corvette convertible (one of the greatest cars ever) and I think to myself, “Wow I want a car just like that,” that is not envy or coveting. To envy or covet means you want WHAT someone else has. It isn’t just having something similar; it is getting that thing that the other person has. It is two parts: you get it and the other person does not.

This can be very heavy as you roll down the trip called life. It is a full time job keeping up with the Jones. Always wanting what someone else has. It is the polar opposite of contentment and I think God wants us to have contentment. That would mean that being envious and coveting is the opposite of God’s will for our lives.

When I was doing comedy I remember hearing Bob Goldwaith saying he doesn’t like to hang around other comics. He said that no matter how good he was doing, when he sat around with other comics, he always felt like he should be doing more. He caught himself coveting and being envious of other comic’s careers. For his own health he realized he needed to STOP COMPARING HIMSELF TO OTHERS. We also always seem to compare ourselves to those doing BETTER than we are. Enjoy YOUR trip. It is not like anyone else’s and besides the happiest people are ENJOYING THEIR TRIP. I find some of my deepest misery comes when I compare myself with others.

To make our trip as fun and light and exciting as possible, we need to unpack and leave three things on the side of the road.

We need to choose not to be angry and realize that it is often not what we think it is about. When we do this we realize that cutting people slack is the better thing to do. We offer them grace.

We need to release resentment. We need to let go of those long standing things that have been making us angry for a long time but we have decided to keep them under the surface. They are doing more harm to us than to anyone we hold resentment towards.

Three, we need to stop the envy. Drop comparing ourselves to others. It is far more useful to count our blessings. The truth is we never know anyone’s full story anyway.  Are you SURE their life is better? This comparing ourselves to others can sometimes lead us to pretending to be something we are not. The French author and moralist, Francois de La Rochefoucauld, who wrote in the 1600’s, said that we are so accustom to disguising ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves. When we stop comparing ourselves to others, the envy stops, too. The desire to be someone we aren’t stops as well. We embrace our true selves, our authentic selves.

Laura gave me a piece of art this Christmas that says, “To be authentic. No greater goal or more difficult task.”

None of this unpacking is going to be easy, but it is worth it. And when it is done, you will find there is plenty of room to pack some really good stuff.

And that will be what we discuss next week in the final leg of our journey down the road.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

The Road
Part 2 - How Will You Get There?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Mark 16:20

20And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.

We are in week two of a four part series called, The Road. This week we are going to look at what you need to get to where you’re going.  What are the things that make the trip worthwhile?

We see in our scripture today that the disciples took a trip as well. Actually they took many trips to just about the four corners of the earth. According to third century historian, Eusebius, Peter sailed to Italy, John ended up in Asia, James traveled as far as Spain and even doubting Thomas went all the way to India.

This passage is at the very end of the book of Mark, the first gospel written. Many scholars believe that Mark’s Gospel ends at 16:18 while others believe that the last two verses were lost and might be reconstructed from elements in the endings of Matthew and Luke. Regardless, for me it is the order of the words that are interesting and I will look at that later. Let’s get back on the road.

I think a big piece of figuring out your Road is trying to decide what kind of trip you are going on. When you figure that out, you will figure out what the best things are to take with you.

When it comes to any trip, we have to figure out what kind of vehicle we are going to use to get us there. You might be a live fast, die young sort of person. You might be a Porsche person. These type of people love to live life to the fullest. The challenging piece is the “die young” part. My Aunt in Las Vegas had a picture in her house of an old gnarly cowboy. The caption read, “If I had known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” I think that speaks to a lot of us.

There are also a number of us who “take the safe road.” These are the Volvo people, always taking the safe route. This is a fine route until you find yourself on the autobahn of life and you are not prepared because you are driving a ’74 Pinto.

The Porsche driver can run into the reverse problem. He, or she, wants to open it up, has the horsepower to do so, but has been put on the road of 25mph, children playing, minivan driving suburbia. This is commonly referred to as the midlife crisis.

There are other cars as well; the comfort of a Mercedes, the excitement of a Jeep, the good times of the Mini Cooper. It doesn’t matter which car you’re in. You just need to know, for your own sanity, don’t go off roading in a Volvo! Don’t jump behind the wheel of a Jeep and expect the comfort of a Mercedes. The truth is…all these cars know who they are. Their companies spend millions branding them.  

So the question is what brand are you? Who are you? You might find yourself starting out in one car and end up in something totally different when you get to the end of the road. Knowing who you are is important. Author e.e. cummings said, and I’ve quoted this before, “To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you just like everyone, means to fight the greatest battle there is to fight, and to never stop fighting.”

Once you know the wheel you are behind, you have to figure out how to keep it running. What kind of fuel are you going to put in it? When and how are you going to do maintenance? I see three main things that can help keep you running: Prayer, Worship and Service.

First prayer. Prayer is at the cornerstone of keeping your life running smoothly.  It doesn’t have to be fancy.   Author Anne Lamott says she has two prayers that get her through most things.  They are “Help me, Help me, Help me and Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.”  In some way, dialogue with God, however you believe God to be.  It is amazing how it can help.  At St. Andrew we say we don’t know how prayer works…but we know prayer works.

 The second piece is Worship.  Find some way to gather together with other people and be in a worship community.  Can you be a Christian without it?  Absolutely.  Would I recommend it?  No.  Life is hard enough.  Why would you want to go through it alone?

 The last piece is Service.  Not a worship service, but acts of service.  I am preaching to the choir on this one.  Most people who come to AfterHours know that this is the core of who we are. This is the Core of our identity.  Go out into the world and find your passion.  When Mother Teresa was asked how people could serve like she did, she said, “Go find your Calcutta.”  We all need to find that thing that makes us Sad, Mad or Glad. Then go do it.

So we have a way to get down the road, we have the fuel to get us moving, now the question becomes, how do we get from point A to point B without having some idea of where we are going.  Without a guide, we are going to get lost.  I have been lost many times in my life.  I am starting to feel like I am headed in the right direction but I know part of being able to get there is the compass I have with me.  

These days, that compass is the Bible.  Now I think I know what some of you are thinking, “ah jeez, not the Bible.”  I felt the same way for a long time.  Still feel that way sometimes.  But nowhere in my life can I say that the more I got to know something, the less useful it became.  90% of that has happened in the last 5-7 years.  It really is an amazing book.  

I will also tell you that we don’t see the Bible as a book that is factually true.  As Marcus Borg tells us in his book, The Heart of Christianity, “the Bible is true, and some of it actually happened.”  For me the key to seeing the bible is to see the truths that are in it that are deeper than factual data.  It is a GUIDE BOOK.  It is a wild ride full of adventure and excitement (okay not Leviticus but otherwise).  It is a book that speaks about the relationship of God and people.  People like you and me.

The final canonization (a fancy church way of saying “making it official”) of the 27 books of the New Testament wasn’t completed until 367 AD…THREE CENTURIES AFTER THE FIRST GOSPEL was written!   THREE CENTURIES AFTER MARK!  Having said that, it is not a book you look to for the facts.  It is a book you look to for the things you lack!  (I think that rhymes, Laura doesn’t.)

Go get a good version of the Bible.  We have talked here about the fact that we use the NSRV or New Revised Standard Version. The Message is good because it is in modern language but is not a direct translation.  Get something and start to explore it.

Finally, the compass isn’t the only way we know where we are going.  When I was about Hudson’s age, my dad and I went to Mount Rushmore.  He thought it would be good to have an educational vacation.  On the way out there we started seeing signs.  THIS WAY TO WALL DRUG….WHERE IN THE HECK IS WALL DRUG….WALL DRUG OR BUST.  We not only didn’t care about Wall Drug when we started out….we had never even heard of it.  I have since learned that we were some of the few.  Metro riders in Paris have seen the signs.  Rail commuters in Kenya and bus passengers in London have seen them.  In their heyday, there were 3,000 highway signs.  You couldn’t miss them.

Roads signs aren’t always like that.  They are useful if you keep your eyes open.  They can be very useful getting you where you want to go if you are looking for them.

God’s signs are like that as well.  You have to keep your eyes open.  You have to stay alert.  They are not Wall Drug signs.  God’s signs are like road signs in another way….you can’t see them from your living room.  You have to get on the road and start the adventure.  It is like that in the scripture we read today.  Mark Batterson points this out in his book Wild Goose Chase.  He says signs follow decisions and I think I agree.  The scripture says, 20And they went forth, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.  

We have to get moving down the road and then the signs start to appear.  For years I thought it was the other way around.  I thought, “I’ll do something as soon as God gives me a sign.”  Nope.  God will follow you and show you are on the right track….but first you need to set foot on the track!

Get on the road, any road, at whatever speed you are comfortable going.  Use the right fuel and have the right compass to show you the way.  Then keep your eyes open and look for the signs.  Mark tells us…signs will be following….then we are to follow the signs.  In the next couple of weeks we will we will be taking a look at what we will pack for the trip and what we are going to leave behind.

 

 

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Road:
Part 1 - What Road are you on?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Isaiah 42:16

16I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I will do, and I will not forsake them.

This is the first in a series that I am doing over the next 4 weeks, and what started as a struggle for coming up with a topic for tonight, turned into an idea that was way beyond one sermon.

I find myself at the end of one journey and at the beginning of another. This is not the first time this has happened in my life. Laura and I packed up everything we had and moved to L.A. I did it in 1987 and she followed a year later. We knew no one. Laura actually had an aunt and uncle in L.A., but we kind of started fresh.  

In 1994 Los Angeles had an earthquake that registered a 6.7. It was January 17th at 4:31 in the morning. That was sixteen years ago today. I can honestly say, it is the only time in my life I thought I was going to die. The place where I worked part time was completely destroyed. That event connects Laura and me to the people of Haiti in a way I wish it didn’t. I pray that this week the people of Haiti, have been, and will continue to be in our hearts.  

If there is a take away from a tragedy like this I think there are two. First, we have to remember that GOD DID NOT DO THIS. Contrary to the popular belief, in some conservative churches, that God made this happen. You may have heard people on T.V. and radio says that this week.  

The Bible tells us that accidents happen. In John (9:1-3) we hear someone ask Jesus, “who sinned, these people or their parents.” Jesus tells them that neither they nor their parents sinned.  

When a tower fell in Luke 13:4, killing 18 people, Jesus tell us that it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Bad, Bad awful stuff happens in this world and God doesn’t make it happen. God wasn’t a part of that. I will tell you of what God is a part. God is a part of the amazing amount of love and compassion that comes pouring out of people when a disaster happens. That is where God is.  

When I’ve talked about our earthquake experience, I have often said that, while the building in L.A. that we were in, didn’t collapse, everything that could break…did. It was shortly after this that we decided to pack up everything we had, or rather everything we had left, and get on the road to Orlando, Florida. Again, we didn’t know anyone. We went in totally blind. Laura got a job with Disney on day three and worked there for ten years.   I worked in a nightclub and did gigs on the road. After ten years, we decided to go on the road again. This time to Denver so I could go to seminary. Again, we knew no one. And God was with us.

Laura and I have realized that we have spent a lot of time on the road. After I got to thinking about this I realize that we all are on the road, some kind of road, all of the time.

So the question is….What kind of Road are you on? Is it the kind of road you want to be on? Are you running on empty? What are you taking with you? Do you need it or want it? Is it time to leave some stuff behind? What are the things you want to take with you on the road? What are things you need for the trip? Who is going with you? These are the things we will be covering over the next few weeks. How do we get through this journey?

So tonight, I want to focus on the road we are on and who is with us. What kind of road are you on? Do you like it? Did you get on one road and not even realize it was merging onto another road that was going in a different direction?

Our scripture today comes from Isaiah. Isaiah is one of the most quoted books that Jesus draws from. It is a long book. Sixty-six chapters! It is not a quick read.

The first 39 chapters basically tell us, don’t face off against God. Get on God’s team. Get on God’s side. This verse comes to us from the second half of Isaiah that tells us that God is going to restore Israel and that God is with those who love God and that God will not leave us no matter where we are on the road.

So again I ask you, what road are you on? When Laura and I came out to Denver we both almost went out of our mind with the roads that we thought were in Kansas. Turns out they were on the Eastern Plains of Colorado.  Wow!  Those were long straight roads. Lots of people like those roads. No sharp turns, no curves that can throw you. The road is simple, straight ahead. Is that the road you are on? Do you like it? God is there with you.

There is a road that is like it. It is safe, people don’t go too fast, but it can drive you crazy. It is stuck in traffic. When we lived in L.A. we were part of some of the worst traffic in the country. In fact the 405 has earned the title of the most congested and busiest freeway in the United States. The joke is that it got its name because people will say that is about the speed you will go on it: “Oh about four or five miles an hour.” Average speeds are routinely recorded at 4 to 5 miles an hour during the morning and afternoon commute.  The 405 and 101 interchanges are consistently among the top five worst interchanges in the country.

It is awful to be stuck in that traffic. You feel like you are wasting time. You aren’t going anywhere and when you do move, you are moving too slow. You know you could move so much faster, but everyone seems to be in your way. You get stopped every time you start to go forward. It can be maddening. You wish God was your co-pilot because then maybe God could just part the cars in front of you, like the Red Sea, and you could fly on through. Don’t we want God to do this sometimes? Just make this “thing” go away? 

This can be an awful place to be. You can’t move. It is just you sitting there….with God. Maybe we need to look at the places where we are stuck and know that God is sitting there with us. Maybe, just maybe, we can stop focusing for a second on where we need to go, and how late we are, and instead focus on who is there with us. For many of us, slowing down isn’t such a bad thing because God is with us.  

There are other roads that have no one on them and you would think you could just put the pedal down and sail. The problem is that just when you are ready to pick up speed, there is a curve. We have lots of these roads in Colorado. I was on Independence Pass last year for the first time. It might be the last. We had to bend the car to make some of those turns. It is the second highest paved mountain pass in the state. Truckers aren’t allowed to use it and it is always closed in the winter. This is a road that a lot of us have been on. It can be okay but it seems like just when we get going, there is another curve in the road. These curves can really throw us especially if they are back-to-back-to back.   

Some of us like the curves. They are called change. Some of us are comfortable with change. We seek it out. Others want to just stick with the straight and narrow. Sometimes it depends if you know whether or not the curve is coming. It is one thing to be ready to make a turn in your life. It is a far different thing to not see it coming.

It is the surprise that is often the challenge. We often don’t mind trying a different route if WE get to decide when. It is when these detours happen, without us knowing, that can often throw us. I think Stacy talked a bit about this when she preached here last time. This is one of the best times to know that God is with us.

As Isaiah tells us, God will not forsake us. I think one of the challenges of the road is the surprises. But it is when we are in uncharted territory that God can perform at God’s best. God tells us here, “I will lead the blind by a road they do not know, by paths they have not known, I will guide them.” God travels with you. God is always on the move with us. In the Hebrew Bible, that we call the Old Testament, after the temple was destroyed, the Israelites had to have God travel with them. They couldn’t go to the temple to worship God. There was no temple. But this did not mean there was no God. Actually, this reminded them…and us that God travels with us. Don’t keep God stuck in church. Take God with you out into the world. And when God travels with us the darkness goes away. The rough spots are made smooth.  

It is one thing to go off roading because we like it. It is a different story when we get thrown off the road. That is what happens when someone dies, when we get divorced, when our house crumbles to the ground, or when we lose a job. I am here to tell you…God is with you and God is there to bring light into your dark places and to make the bumpy, lousy road straight. If God is truly your co-pilot, change seats. Let God lead you. God will take you out of the dark, rough places and to where the light is and the road is a bit smoother. Next week we will look at what we should take with us to make the trip a bit more pleasant.  

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Forgive and Forget

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Galatians 3:26-29

26for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. 27As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

I have liked this piece of scripture since hearing about it my first year in seminary. After my first year in seminary, I went back to Florida to go in front of my committee on ordained ministry.  Florida is a pretty conservative United Methodist community. They knew I went to Iliff, a pretty liberal seminary, and they didn’t really know what kind of “theological training” I was getting there. Long story short, I had a target painted on my back.

They started grilling me and after awhile they brought up this passage. We had studied this passage in New Testament class, and when they asked me about the “promise through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe,” I said, “well that depends if you are using the subjective genitive or objective genitive. One is referring to the faith in Christ that we have and the other is referring to the faith of Christ with which he led his life and took him to the cross.  

“To which are you referring, I said.”  

After that there were no more questions. I so wanted to go, “In your face! In your face!” but thought that probably wouldn’t show good Christian love towards my brothers and sisters and probably would be a poor political move, so I kept my mouth shut.

While you could do a whole sermon on that part of the passage alone, I want to focus on what Paul is suggesting. To the Jewish community in Paul’s day, this would have been like a bomb dropping. The Jews were the children of God. The phrase “Sons of God” was used in the Old Testament and among the Jewish people as a designation for Israel as God’s elect people. Paul was saying that through faith, ALL were children of God. HUGE! HUGE!

Now it might seem easy to say that we believe that as well. It might, also, seem hard to relate this to today. After all, we are not dealing with Jews and Greeks. We aren’t dealing, thank God, with slaves and free. Granted we don’t have to deal with Male and Female because they are being treated equally, right ladies? All said, Paul uses examples of his day and that can sometimes make it hard to relate.

It can get easier if we switch it to some modern day vernacular and stories. What we are really talking about here is how we put people into groups and define them through that. Paul wasn’t saying that men and women went away and a hybrid type of person developed. Everyone retained their uniqueness, they just were not to judge on those things that made them different from their neighbors. I heard a preacher say one time that everyone is equal and that might only seem like a bummer until you realized that this was awesome club in which to belong.

So we are not just talking about differences, but the judgment we place on those differences. We might not have those things that were mentioned in the passage but we pull out the tape measure in all kinds of areas in today’s life and times. And, we can get so wrapped up in how those tape measures read. We find ourselves held hostage by six little words: WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF ME?

This week I have had a number of encounters regarding jobs and the money we make at them. It is so easy to judge others….and yourself, by the all mighty dollar.

I remember when I was doing the show biz gig. When I was working, I was making great money, thousands of dollars for a half hours work. Did you catch the phrase, “when I was working?” When I didn’t land those gigs, I was working at the GAP at the Burbank Mall. I was 30. I literally had weeks when I would get picked up in a limo, go stay at the Four Seasons, work with a celebrity, eat fancy meals, and then come home to change into my khaki’s to go do my shift at the GAP. If money and a job define you, and it changes daily, that is a pretty schizophrenic existence.  

On the one hand, when I was working in Show Biz, I felt great. I was living the life and making all kinds of money. When I was at the GAP, I was miserable. Here’s the kicker: BOTH ARE WRONG. I was letting my job and what the world thought decide how I would see myself. One time one of the producers I had worked with on a show came in to get some chinos. I was mortified. I was a wreck because of those six lousy words: what will they think of me?

Now granted, some of us might have heard some pretty lousy things said about us when we were growing up. But even after those people went away, we still play those tapes in our head…many times saying things much worse than when they were said by someone else.

It does come down to how we value ourselves doesn’t it? Job and money is just one way. Even the kind of career, even the kind of career within a career is a way to value ourselves. Humor me for a second. Close your eyes, everyone, even the cool people. What do you think of when I say these jobs: Monk…do you have a picture in front of you? Picture a man of the cloth.  Now try TV Evangelist. How about fast food cook, the kind of guy that would work in a diner or greasy spoon… and celebrity chef? Used car salesman…Ferrari salesman. Do we know anything about these people? Or do we base our judgment of them (and ourselves) on what they do for a living.

Try this one. Think of the people that eat and drink these things: Sushi/New York Strip/Montrachet, 1st Cru and Opus One…can you picture someone? And what about Mac-n-cheese, fried bologna sandwich, PBR Tallboy and Jack Daniels. Do you get a different picture? Nothing is wrong with seeing a different picture. Where we jump the rails is when we make a judgment based on that different picture.  Some of the most outstanding people I know like steak and fine wine…and others are fans of Mac-n-cheese and Yukon Jack.

What if they are wearing suits or wranglers or tuxes or Cowboy hats?  Drive a Prius or a Benz?  Have a wine cellar or a barn?  These things MIGHT give us clues on what people might hold important but they don’t DEFINE the person.  Try as we might, if someone lives in Greenwood Village or Five Points…we probably notice.

 And we do it with ourselves as well.

 And often, the things we dislike in others are the very things we dislike the most in ourselves. I like working with the homeless and am amazed when some of the guys will come around and drop off stuff they have…FOR OTHER HOMELESS PEOPLE. I can’t stand the fact that there are people that have tons of everything and don’t share them when I see homeless people giving things away. And yet one of those people who have tons of everything IS ME! Ask yourself if the things that you most dislike in others are not the same things that, deep down, you dislike about yourself?  It is with me.

The only way to fix this is to forgive others their shortcomings. Know that they are a work in progress.  They are doing the best they can at this moment in their life and that they will ALWAYS be a work in progress.  Now apply those same things to yourself.  When you learn to forgive others, you learn to, subconsciously, forgive yourself and be a little easier on everyone.

Paul in this passage reminds us that the only club that we have to remember we belong in is the one called children of God.  And as we learned a few weeks back, the main commandment is to love God and love each other…AS YOUR SELF.  When we love others, we love ourselves.  And when we love others, because as you do to the least of my brothers you do unto me…we love God as well.  We are all Children of God and it is an awesome club to belong to.

Paul reminds us that there is no Jew nor Greek, nor slave nor free, nor male and female.  This also means today there is no Monk nor used car salesman.  No eater of Sushi or Mac-n-chesses.  No resident of Five Points or Greenwood Village.  We are all just members of the family of God.

We need to remember to “forgive” others and “forget” the old labels and judgments.  

Sunday, January 03, 2010

I’ve changed my mind…and other changes

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Genesis 18:20-33

20Then the Lord said, “How great is the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah and how very grave their sin! 21I must go down and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me; and if not, I will know.” 22So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom, while Abraham remained standing before the Lord.

23Then Abraham came near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you then sweep away the place and not forgive it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will forgive the whole place for their sake.” 27Abraham answered, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29Again he spoke to him, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31He said, “Let me take it upon myself to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32Then he said, “Oh do not let the Lord be angry if I speak just once more. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham; and Abraham returned to his place.

This is one of my all time favorite passages.  It sounds to me a bit like a scene from Guys and Dolls.  It is almost like Abraham is playing the part of Nathan Detroit.  He isn’t exactly conning God but there is quite a bit of smooth talking going on. It is Abraham, the father of three faiths as used car salesman, “What would it take for me to get you to drop your anger?”

GOD’S STORY

While I like the almost comic tone of this scene, it is not what I notice most about this scenario. It is the fact that we see, from the earliest book of the Bible, that GOD CHANGES GOD’S MIND. This is amazing and speaks directly to the idea of change.

We see God changing God’s mind again later in Exodus in the part, “And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.” This is hard for many people who hold the belief that God doesn’t change. In many ways I would agree with them: I don’t believe that God’s love for us changes. I don’t believe that God’s fundamental nature changes. Things like God’s love, mercy, compassion, justice and forgiveness. I think those remain constant.  

But as we see in the scriptures today, God does change as more information is revealed to God. Now you might say, “wait a second, doesn’t God know all?”  I believe God does know all that is possible to know. I also believe that God works in partnership with us. God always longs for the best possible outcome. I believe God takes all the information that is in the universe and uses that for good. What God doesn’t have is us….completely.  That is because God gave us free will.  It is through this free will that we are in partnership with God.

The universe is always changing and in motion and in process. We are part of that process as well as God. This is at the center of what is called Process theology. It shows us that we work with God in our lives. It shows us that our God is not a God of ego and unchanging control. God will work with us…even if it means changing, as we see in the two scripture examples.  

This does not mean that God was wrong the first time. The Hebrew word for “change his mind” is the word "nacham" (pronounced nawkam). It simply means change direction. The world has moved and shifted, and with it new information has risen to the surface…like how people made decisions. God took this information and worked towards the best possible outcome.

This means that even God changes.  And yet, we are afraid of change.

We are in a new year and with that comes the opportunity to make changes. Health Clubs will be packed even though sixty percent of the folks that join this month will never go back to the gym three months from now. We have an opportunity to change in a way that goes deeper than just treadmills and Pilates.  

This time of year is a great time to ask ourselves, “Are we living our best lives?” God wants us to have life and have it abundantly. We see this in John 10:10. Now I don’t think this means abundance of “stuff.” It means living as full a life as you can, full of joy and love and kindness and forgiveness. I truly believe it is all inside of every one of us. We just need to get rid of the junk that gets in the way of that fuller life. So what is getting in the way for you to have the fullest life possible?

We are all trying to become a better version of ourselves. Life is about trying everyday to be more truly who you are, changing to become closer and closer to your authentic self.  The self God created you to be.

DAVID’S STORY

Many times people might think it is too late for me. I know someone named David. For 35 years he felt like he was trapped. When people looked at him, they saw nothing special. Twice others tried to help him, but nothing really came of it. For 35 years, David was nothing special. But then someone else stepped in and helped show the world how special David was. His name was Michelangelo. See, Michelangelo wasn’t the first artist who tried to work on David. There were two that came before him. The work on David began in 1464. Two different artists tried but the project was halted in 1466 and not picked up again until 1501 when Michelangelo took over. He worked on it for three years before he was finished. He didn’t add to the piece, he chipped away at that which was not needed. He worked under the premise that the image of David was already in the block of stone on which he was working. It is the same way with the human soul found within the physical body. Michelangelo was quoted as saying, “I saw an angel in the block of marble and I just chiseled 'til I set him free. When they asked him how he made his statue of David, he is reported to have said, "It is easy. You just chip away the stone that doesn't look like David.”

YOUR STORY

What do you need to chip away at that isn’t a part of you? What are the things that you are carrying around that you need to chisel off? Anger? Resentment? Lost potential? You can let it go. Maybe it is a few pounds, it is with me. I know I can be a better physical self than I am now. I’m going to change that. I know I like the fact that I am thinking about God more throughout the day now that it is in my blackberry. I will keep at that.  I want to be better with my money and saving and learn to spend less. I will change that. I want to put more love and compassion and less judgment in my life. Going down to the park to hand out food and clothes does that.  I’ll keep at that as well.  It is about keeping what is working in your life and discarding the rest, and having a belief that you can do it.  Michelangelo said once, “Faith in oneself ... is the best and safest course.”

Have faith in yourself, knowing that God is rooting for you and will work with you to give you the most abundant life you can live.  Like David’s story, it probably won’t happen overnight.  It took Michelangelo three years to create his masterpiece.  How long will it take to create the masterpiece that is your life?  Nikos Kazantzakis (cousin-za-kiss) was one of the most translated Greek writers and philosophers of the 20th century and author of Zorba the Greek.  He said, “You have your brush, you have your colors, you paint paradise, then in you go.” We are not looking for perfection.  We are looking for our best possible selves.

Here is to a 2010 when we chip away at what is useless in our lives, those things that are holding back our souls, and when we reveal the masterpiece that God created in each and every one of us.

 

 

Sunday, December 13, 2009

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

 Luke 1:26-38

26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

I am going to do what I have told other speakers never to do when they start talking. I am going to start with a joke. Ready? Alright. What do Jesus, Mary and a really good bartender have in common? They all listen…O.K., it’s not really a joke, but as a kickoff to a sermon message, actually it still needs work but that’s what I have.

Think about it, whenever Jesus performed any healing in the gospels he always started by doing this. He modeled for us one of the most compassionate things that one human being can do for another. Paul Tillich was a theologian who said that the first duty of love is to listen. It is something that someone like me gets tons of and others, like the guys down in the park, hardly get any of. It’s the ears of people.

It was the first thing that Mary did when she was visited by the Angel Gabriel.

It is the beginning to any conflict resolution. It makes people feel fantastic when it is done right. I have heard it said that Bill Clinton used to make you feel like you were the most important person in the world when he was listening to you. Now Billy might not be a role model in other areas of life, but as a listener it sounds like he had it down. We all have our gifts.

A lot of you know that I worked in Los Angeles. At one point, I worked closely with Dick Clark on one of his shows. When the show ended we had a wrap party. When I walked up to Dick and introduced him to Laura, the first thing he said was, “What do you do Laura?” When Laura told him she was an actress, he went on and on saying what a hard job that was and continued to ask her questions about HERSELF…let me remind you….HE DISCOVERED THE BEATLES! And this singer girl named Madonna. I was so, so impressed with the way he took the focus off himself and instead, listened.

Listening is at the center of Jesus’ ministry and is something that I try to get better at everyday at the job. Most comics are lousy at it and most good bartenders are great at it. They say they train you in it in seminary but I must have missed that class.

Listening is truly an art form. Can you imagine if Mary was lousy at it? Listen to today’s scripture:

Luke 1:26-38

26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” 35The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Imagine if Gabriel said: “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” And Mary replied, “I’m sorry what? I missed that.” The beginning of Jesus very existence began with Mary LISTENING.

Jesus always began this way. He listened. He listened to the demons inside the man with an unclean spirit, he listened to the leper, he listened to the Pharisees ask their questions, and sometimes he even listened to the questions that were in their hearts that they didn’t even say out loud. He listened to the Centurion’s plea to heal his servant and, to Jairus’ plea to help his only daughter. Jesus always began by giving people his time and attention. Jesus listened to people. Jesus still listens to people. Jesus listens to you.

So shouldn’t we? When we listen to others, we are being like Jesus. Not a bad model. Jesus strikes me as a pretty busy guy, yet he was ALWAYS being interrupted. He always made time. I remember a college professor that became famous in the early 80’s: Leo Buscalia. He was a professor at USC in California. He always said, “People first, things second.” I think this was Jesus’ M.O. as well. Despite always being interrupted, he made the time. Sounds like something we might want to consider as well.

The other thing I noticed was that Jesus never bothered to listen to the back story on anyone. He never said, “Well, how did we get in this situation? As you think back on this, what would you have changed? Would you have done anything different?” NO! He just Listened to them, Loved them and Let them go. The three L’s: Listen, Love, Let’em go.

This is what Mary does in the story. First she listens. Then she stated her love of God. “I am a servant of the Lord.” Then she let the Angel go. She also let go of a bunch of other things as well. She let go of her need to control. She let go of her need to know the future. She let go of her need to have things go the way she planned. I have to do a lot of that now that the Bishop decides my future. I have to let go of what I THINK would be best for me. Letting go of my need to control my future is huge. I went from a career where I controlled everything; bookings, material, travel, wardrobe, everything, to a career where I control nothing. I could be living in Salt Lake City this time next year. We might all have a little bit less stress if we let go of our need for control.

When we listen we do that, if we are truly listening, if we are really hearing and not just waiting for our turn to speak. James Lipton, the host of Inside The Actor’s Studio, ran up against this when he was interviewing Jack Lemmon. He was talking to Lemmon about his movie, Days of Wine and Roses and said, “Remember when you said that line when you were in that AA meeting in the movie? You stood up and said, do you remember?” And Lemmon said, “I’m, your name, and I’m an alcoholic…which I am.” And Lipton said, “Are you the character talking now or Jack Lemmon?” And Lemmon said, “Me, Jack Lemmon. I’m an alcoholic.” This was the first time Jack Lemmon admitted this in public. James Lipton was dumbfounded. He just said, “That was a really amazing scene.” And then he just kept on going. He was so sure he knew where he wanted the conversation to go; he didn’t know what to do when it took this amazing, raw, transparent turn.

We have to listen, really listen if we want to be like Jesus and Mary. Someone once said that you have two ears and one mouth for a reason. Use them in the right proportion.

We often say that we are the hands and feet of Christ. We are also his ears. Sometimes all people need is someone to nod their head and hear their words, to not give them quick answers, and to not judge them. One of the most often heard reasons that I hear that brought people into AfterHours was the line on the bar ads and the coasters, “Less Judgment.” It’s like we said last week. Aren’t we all so sick of being Judged? Jesus just listened to them, loved them and let them go. We need to learn to listen without an agenda. When we are down in the park, one of the things we give the guys that they appreciate the most is our time. Time to listen. Time not to judge. Time to not give answers but just simply to listen.

Try listening to others this Christmas season. It might be the best gift you can give someone.

There is another side to listening and it’s not just to people. Lily Tomlin said once, “Why is it when we talk to God it’s called prayer and when God talks to us, we are crazy?” Do you spend most of your prayer time talking or listening? What do you hear when you sit quietly and just relax into that still small voice? It is a small voice. You have to be pretty quite to hear it. Do you hear what I hear? I doubt it. Everyone is different.

So what do you hear when you listen? And that will be our little chat next week…

Sunday, December 06, 2009

What Do You Know for Sure?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

 Matthew 7:3-5

3Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

Romans 2:1

2Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

I realized as I wrote the title for this talk that I might be misleading.  This message is not about faith and doubt.  It is about something that is potentially far more damaging.  It is about something that you and I do every day, probably dozens of times a day.  It has the potential to eat us up inside and when we find someone who doesn’t do it, we run to them and confide in them our deepest darkest secrets.  It is a sign of small mindedness and is the exact opposite of compassion and chances are if you are anything like me, you have done it since you walked in the door tonight.

 It’s judgment.

 Here are what our two verses have to say about it tonight:

Matthew 7:3-5

3Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.

Romans 2:1

2Therefore you have no excuse, whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things.

I have almost made it a year.  I preached on Judgment back in February.  This refresher isn’t for you…it’s for me.  In some ways, it helps me recognize that Christianity is not that complicated.  Following in Jesus’ foot steps is simple…but not easy.

There are only so many core messages that Jesus spoke to:

  • Love
  • Compassion
  • Fear
  • Judgment
  • Grace
  • Forgiveness
  • Attachment to this world
  • Creating a better world.

And he spoke on some of those more than once.  Jesus repeated his message more than once in three years…I was able to go for almost a year…see, here I am judging myself.

Now, I know a lot of pastors that don’t repeat.  What they do end up doing is preach on some weird esoteric subjects.  I hear their topic and think that I already don’t want to hear about that.  See, I would rather talk three times on love and the lack of it and what we need to do about it, than preach on substitutional atonement, transubstantiation and Schleiermacher’s understanding of salvation.  (Incidentally, Schleiermacher is often called the “Father of Modern Protestant Theology.”  And, I do enjoy talking about him…I just don’t know how much he will help you get through your week.

So I am going to talk a bit more about Judgment tonight.  It is clear from our two passages tonight that both Jesus and Paul were not the biggest fans of judgment.

Let’s first look at the Matthew verse.  For me the biggest deal regarding this verse is that we need to know what the passage means by, judgment.  In the Greek, krino, has a broad meaning.  It means everything from aesthetic judgment, Wow, that’s pretty,” to court proceedings “we find the defendant guilty.”  It is believed that, in this passage, Jesus is stating it to mean, “be critical of” or “condemn.”

It was kind of cool that when were in Israel we went to Zappori.  Zappori was a town nearby Nazareth and it was a town that had a lot of construction going in it in Jesus’ day.  Traditionally, it is understood that Jesus was a carpenter but it is probably more accurate that Jesus was more like, what we would consider, a stone mason.  If there was every any confusion about Jesus being of the common man put those thoughts to rest.  Jesus probably went to Zappori to work on building the city.  That’s where the work was.  Jesus was a construction worker.  This was a town where Jesus would have been exposed to a lot of things that he wouldn’t have been exposed to in a smaller town like Nazareth.  Zappori was more cosmopolitan.  It even had a theater.  We went and stood in that theater. 

When we look at this passage we see Jesus telling the crowd not to be a hypocrite.  Do you know the origin of the word hypocrite?  It is a Greek term that comes from the theater.  It means I play a part.  Derived from the verb, “Judge” (»κρίση, "judgement" »κριτική (kritiki), "critics"), it was probably one of the words that Jesus picked up while he was working in Zappori, and if he was working in construction, he probably picked up a few more words that didn’t make it into his teaching. 

We see in this passage Jesus knowing that judgments WILL be made, with regards to discrimination and not necessarily condemnation.  It’s more about before you “fix” other people’s little problems; fix your own bigger one.

In Roman’s, Paul is talking about the GOOD NEWS, that on the final judgment day, those that have been oppressed and suffered injustices will be set right.  Things will be made right.  Still, he is coming at us from the angle that it is in judging others that WE are the ones that look bad.  The verdict you pass down to them is the same verdict that you will receive. 

I will catch myself saying and even thinking some really judgmental stuff.  I am especially susceptible, because I already have been put in this position of “authority” and it is amazingly easy to adopt an elitist attitude.  This is EXACTLY what Jesus rallied against during his time on earth.  His beef was with the religious authorities.  It was with people who held MY position that he was upset with.  He was upset with the leaders that ignored the 2 cents that the widow put in the offering but made a big deal when THEY put money in or a big deal when those with lots of wealth put money in.

Jesus ALWAYS sides with the oppressed.  Shouldn’t we?  If we are trying to model the work of Jesus we need to not be judgmental of those out in the world but at the same time ask ourselves, “Who is doing the oppressing?  Who is perpetrating injustice?  Who is abusing the system and how can we fix it?”  Our job is to do the hard work on ourselves and bring the Kingdom of God down to earth.  Jesus came here to teach us how to love each other not judge each other.

That judgment can often lead to people giving “advice”.  Do you know these people?  Those that always want to give you advice…even when you never asked for any?  My dad use to tell me, “Jerry, don’t give advice.  The wise don’t need it and the dumb won’t heed it.”

There is a time to be selfish.  That time is in regards to judgment.  Focus on working on yourself first, THEN more on down the line.  I know so few perfect people.  I have so many things to deal with in regards to myself, I sometimes think it is silly that I come up here to give you all any advice.  We preachers like to call it, “A Message.”  This is part of my job description though so the best I can do is walk along side of all of you and try to figure this out together.

Judging others is like poison.  It eats you up inside.  It also doesn’t make you look all that great to the outside world.  You know those folks that are always criticizing something?  They aren’t very attractive.  And, I don’t mean in a Johnny Depp, Zac Ephron, or Brittney Spears kind of way.  Judgment just looks…ugly.

Truly, only God knows the whole story so it would seem to me that God would be the best one to make any kind of call.  When we are judging others…we are playing God. 

It reminds me of the card I use to carry in my wallet.  It looks like this:

Dear Jerry,  You love ’em, I’ll judge ’em.  Signed, God.

I don’t know if you have heard this story but it is about the guy who lives in New York and he is riding the subway with his three kids all under the age of 5.  They are…shall we say…a spirited bunch, running up and down the middle of the car and swinging around the poles.  After watching for a few minutes a woman makes a snide remark, “I see you are one of those parents that believe in letting your children run free?”  The man replied, “Sorry if that is bothering you. They normally aren’t like this but we are returning from their mom’s funeral and it was a long day and I just don’t have the energy to reprimand them.  I am just trying to figure out how to go on from here.

We never know the whole story.  I am going to try to think about that the next time someone goes speeding around me, or a woman is trying to control three kids while shopping at Wal-Mart, or I have a co-worker that is doing things that make absolutely no sense.  We never know the whole story.  Ask yourself the next time you catch yourself ready to make a judgment, “What do I really know for SURE?”

 

 

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Is the Golden Rule Tarnished?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Luke 6:27-32

27“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 29If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.

 It exists in every major religious system of thought and in most every world philosophy. The theory of Reciprocity. I have handouts of what some of the world’s religions have to say about it. I had to edit the list down because there were too many to fit easily on one sheet.  

It comes to us in two places. It is in Matthew in the Sermon on the Mount and here in Luke in the Sermon in the Plain. Some scholars believe that it is the same occurrence and others believe that Jesus told the same sermons in multiple places. Matthew says it this way: (Matthew 7:12) “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.” And in Luke it is, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

The Sermon on the Mount many believe was given at the North End of the Sea of Galilee, near Capernaum. It is a natural amphitheater. Normal level of voices can carry as much as 200 yards. When I was in Israel, we stood in the area that was believed to be the spot of the Sermon on the mount. That was a bit surreal.

The bottom line of the verse is this: treat other people the way you want other people to treat you. My question today is: do you think it works?

I’ll tell you why I ask. I don’t think everyone wants to be treated the same way I want to be treated. Now of course I want to be treated with kindness and respect and good intentions. The challenge becomes how I chose to interpret those things.

For example, love. Everyone wants to be loved. The question is…how? Do the ways that I want to receive love represent the ways that you want to receive love? It can get kinda tricky. Let me give you an example.

One year for Laura’s birthday I bought her a COACH bag. She isn’t real big on buying things for herself so I thought I would get her something nice that would last. When she opened it she thought it was great…then she saw the label. She said although she loved it, she had to return it. It was too much money to spend on a bag. I have done a little research and discovered that Laura is the only woman in the history of the company to ever return a bag. (NOTE: years later, I bought her another bag from COACH and told her I got it on sale and that she could not return it…truth is. I got it at the outlet in Orlando and all sales were final.)

I, on the other hand, LOVE gifts. Laura will buy me a magazine at King Soopers and I will fall over myself thanking her. There is something to this phenomenon.

Gary Chapman wrote a book awhile back called The Five Love Languages. Laura and I read the book over ten years ago and I STILL use what I learned in the book today. The wild thing is that it isn’t just for your relationship with your significant other. It has helped me with my dad, my bosses throughout the years, my sister and brother and people in this congregation.

The gist of the book is that people should follow the golden rule but how you employ that rule makes all the difference. In the book there are five primary love languages: words of affirmation, quality time, receiving gifts, acts of service, and physical touch. We all have all the love languages but Chapman maintains that there is probably a dominate one. That is your primary love language.

When we expect others to have the same primary love language as we do, when we, “do onto others as we would have them do onto us,” we can sometimes get hurt or at the very least, not feel loved and understood.

If we were to go back to the Laura and Jerry COACH bag story, we would see CLEARLY that Jerry’s love language is gifts while Laura’s is not. What I really should have gotten Laura was a week of me emptying the dishwasher. Laura’s primary love language is acts of service. Now I will say that I think your love language can change over time, but what I think is important is that we don’t assume that the love language that works best for us is the one that will work for others.

You see this happen all the time. Let’s take a classic, stereotypical example, A wife saying, “You never say you love me.” The husband’s reaction? Never say I love you? I bust my …working 90 hours a week so the kids can have the best schools, you can buy whatever you want and we get to take a nice vacation every year. And you say I never say “I love you.”??? Now, on the surface, he looks like a jerk but maybe the reality is that his love language is acts of service and hers are words of affirmation. Maybe the complaint isn’t saying the words “I love you” but that he is never home. Her language might be quality time…of which she is getting none because he is always at work. Or maybe it is physical touch. Suddenly, “not tonight dear I have a headache.” Means something different. Maybe that person does…but to the other person, whose love language is physical touch…well, you can see how signals can get crossed.

Jesus is telling us to love each other. That is the message time and time again. HOW we do that is the hard work that we need to put in.

And let us be clear; it is not dependant on how it is received. I first was going to stop the scripture passage with verse 31, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”  I then realized that verse 32 is where the rubber meets the road. “If you love those that love you, what credit is that to you?” Ouch! Jesus is kinda telling us, “don’t think you are all that great for loving the loveable. Love the Unlovable. THAT is what I have done and as followers of mine you are to do the same.” Love others regardless of whether the love is accepted and returned.

That is what this congregation is becoming known for. I talked to someone in the congregation this week who told me that they were talking to one of their customers and telling them about going down to Civic Center Park and feeding the homeless. This person said they want to give to that program. People get it. People that go to church and people that don’t. We aren’t even asking for money and people are opening their hearts and checkbooks. You know why? Because they sense that we are just going out and loving on people. Simple. Not shoving religion down their throat. Not forcing them to hear a sermon first. Not telling them what lousy sinners they are. We are just loving them, being with them and meeting them right where they are. People are smart they can sense when something is true. They can sense when something does or does not have an agenda. Complete strangers are giving us money to go out and love the invisible of the world. When we feed the people at El Centro or the folks down at Civic Center Park, we are loving those that the world has deemed unlovable. And they have love languages too. Some just want some time from you. Some just need a kind word. Some are touched that we are giving them something. Some are just thankful we are willing to shake their hand. Quality time, Words of Affirmation, Gifts, physical touch. People are people whether they have a roof over their heads or not. It is not always giving them what we would like. It is taking the time to figure out what we think THEY would like. Same is true with everyone we meet.

In the end, we might want to turn to that great 20th century theologian, George Bernard Shaw who said it this way, “Do not do unto others as you would that they should do unto you. Their taste may not be the same.”

Maybe we need a platinum rule: do unto others as you think they would like to be done unto.” 

Sunday, November 08, 2009

A Still, Small Voice…
by Shani Jones

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Matthew 3:13  (Good News Version)

13 At that time Jesus arrived from Galilee and came to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.   14 But John tried to make him change his mind. I ought to be baptized by you, John said, and yet you have come to me! 15 But Jesus answered him, Let it be so for now. For in this way we shall do all that God requires. So John agreed.

I’m a student at Iliff School of Theology and I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about my “call” to service in the church and what that exactly means for me.

I think my call really started with an experience I had as a young girl. I grew up in a small Nebraska town and my job, starting at about age 10, was to deliver the newspaper to all the houses on the North side of town. My twin sister, Schawn, delivered newspapers to all the houses on the South side of town.  Those early Nebraska mornings could be brutal in the winter! We looked forward to stopping at each church along the way to warm up.

I was deeply affected by those early morning church visits…my family didn’t go to church. I imagined that churches were like some kind of elite club… scary, judgmental places that were closed to outsiders. But the doors to these churches were always unlocked, every one of them!  I could walk right in. I would always go right into the sanctuary. In those days the sanctuaries looked more traditional. There were solid wood pews, ornate altars, gorgeous stained glass windows and beautiful hand carved wooden clocks ticking loudly in the silence.  As I sat in those sanctuaries, I felt not only relief from the cold weather, but a peace and comfort that I can still revisit in my mind. It didn’t matter what type of church it was, I felt the same in each sanctuary. I used to pray there at the rail feeling like God was right there listening.

I still remember each one of those churches…Bethel Mennonite….Bellwood Mennonite….St. Mary’s Catholic Church… The Assembly of God Church….then the good old Methodist Church right across from Fred’s grocery on Main Street. My sister had the Lutherans on her side of town and they kept cocoa in their kitchen so she faired a little better. She wasn’t quite as frozen when we rendezvoused at Donna’s Donut Shop.

I’ve always associated a connection with God to the peace and comfort I felt in those church sanctuaries of my early years.

In more recent years, though, I’ve come to believe that connecting with God is also about doing God’s work in the world; that Christianity is more than just soaking in God’s love for us.

But how do we know what God is calling us to do in the world?  And, how do we even know when God’s calling?

The Bible has many stories of dramatic calls from God.  The prophet Isaiah, for example, writes of kneeling in the temple, and while the room shook and filled with smoke, he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “whom shall I send?”  Isaiah answers, “Here I am!  Send me!”  He goes on to be one of the most famous prophets of the Bible.  

Moses, gets a call that is just as obvious.  While tending his flock of sheep he hears God calling to him from a burning bush.  God tells him, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I know their suffering and I have heard their cry.  I will send you to Pharoah to bring the Israelites out of Egypt.”  Unlike Isaiah, Moses does a fair amount of resisting but he ends up fulfilling the call he was given.

Now, if you hear a loud voice calling from a burning bush that gets your attention!  But how about the rest of us, how do we know what God is calling us to do?

I think for most people finding your call in the world is less like hearing a loud, direct voice, and more like a still… small…voice.

Living into that call is less like a dramatic conversion and more like… a gradual change.

Sometimes it’s a nudge…a passing thought to be involved in something and a sudden opportunity to do just that or a spark of interest that flickers inside of us when we hear of a person or project that needs help.

The Bible has other examples of being called in less dramatic ways.  The one I like is our scripture reading for this evening, a conversation between Jesus and John the Baptist.

Jesus was saying here that John was necessary to fulfill God’s plan…that although Jesus was a pretty important guy, he couldn’t do this alone.  John had a gift that was unique and he was called to share that with the world.

Now that’s more like a call I can relate to!  It is less obvious than a burning bush, but just as real.

Last spring I was part of a group that participated in a “Civil Rights Journey of the South.” We spent months reading and learning about the events of the Civil Rights Movement then travelled to many of those places.  The thing that struck me most in that experience was how many ordinary people, just like you and me, responded to a call to be involved.  They stood up for what was right…for racial equality and justice…or sat DOWN as it were. Ordinary people like Rosa Parks who sat down on that now famous bus in Montgomery, Alabama and refused to move.

Ordinary people like Jo Ann Robinson, who had a telephone call from a friend telling her that a black woman had been arrested for refusing to give her seat to a white person on the bus.  Jo Ann sensed a call to be a part of the movement that Rosa Parks had begun, and while Rosa sat in jail, Jo Ann went to the copy room of the local community college where she worked and copied 35,000 flyers asking black bus riders to boycott the buses.  In those days copying was by hand crank, so this took her all night.  The flyers she copied were distributed throughout the city and thousands of bus commuters refused to ride the bus in the many months that followed.  They walked to and from work leaving before dawn and getting home very late.  This was a major inconvenience for 13 months but they held strong to their call until the Montgomery bus line was brought to its knees and you know the rest of the story.  The busses were fully integrated.  Joanne lost her job in the copy room, but her call to be God’s hands in the world made all the difference!

So many young people stood strong in the face of civil rights abuses all over the south.  In Birmingham, kids organized themselves to protest the inability of blacks to be served at lunch counters.  Without telling their parents, instead of going to school, they met at the 16th street Baptist Church and marched through Birmingham.  They were beaten, attacked with water hoses and dogs, and hundreds were arrested…but they were determined to stay the course and it worked!

But answering a call from God doesn’t require bodily harm!  I know of a woman in a north metro Denver church who has quietly committed herself to helping immigrants learn English.  On Sunday afternoons she donates her time to teaching any immigrant who walks through the church doors.  Sometimes the room is full but she never turns anyone away.

Here is one final example.  If you care about justice and doing God’s work in the world, you’re in good company with the Methodist Church.  John Wesley, who founded the Methodist church, had a commitment to service toward the poor, particularly those in jail.  In the 1700’s, prisoners had to pay if they wanted to be fed.  If you were a poor prisoner you were a hungry prisoner.  John Wesley organized groups to bring food and comfort to these prisoners.  He preached in the streets asking people to do all they could for the poor among them.  Until just a few nights before he died, he was out going door to door in the snow and cold collecting money for the poor.

So I ask each of us to pay close attention to God’s call in our lives.  It’s a call no one else is going to receive.  Pay attention to that still, small voice that enters our hearts when we pray, and take that call seriously…then take your call out into the world!  AMEN

Sunday, November 01, 2009

Re-Imagining the Kingdom of God
by Ryan Canaday

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Matthew 13:31-32

31He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

Sometimes Jesus simply didn’t make sense.  Right when we think he’s on to something, he loses it.  “The kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven is like…” and we expect him to finish the saying in beautiful poetic structure with a comparison that all are able to understand. But this is rarely the case. Consider this senseless parable.  Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 

Not only are we contemporary readers baffled by the imagery, but I think even the 1st century Jewish peasants who were familiar with the imagery were baffled as well.  Had Jesus lost his mind? Proclaiming such a kingdom would be as senseless as telling the people to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them, or telling someone while under the threat of a Roman solider to put away his sword. It would be a senseless as riding a donkey into Jerusalem—the center of power—instead of riding in on a warhorse. What are we to do with the parable of the mustard seed?

Jesus’ parables drew from situations and images familiar to the everyday life of 1st century peasants. Jesus re-presented familiar material in a very unfamiliar way so that the crowds would have to re-think God’s kingdom (or God’s empire) in light of the Roman Empire in which they were living. And although it might take only a minute to read; the parables were most likely long interactions between Jesus and an audience, who were probably talking back to him, interrupting him, debating with him, and even disagreeing with him. 

We can imagine what the crowd might have been saying after Jesus compared God’s kingdom to a tiny mustard seed: “But Jesus, mustard seeds do not grow to be trees; they grow to be weeds or maybe small shrubs. And we don’t want weeds in our fields!”  If Jesus had said the kingdom of heaven is like a Cedar of Lebanon (a very big tree), of course, everyone would have understood. The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed…this just doesn’t make sense!  We can hear Jesus reply: “Yes, this kingdom is unlike the kingdom you are familiar with—God’s empire is not like the Roman Empire.” 

The images of trees symbolize imperial power and rule. In the Old Testament, Assyria, Egypt, and Babylon are described as magnificent trees cut down by God. The 1st century audience would have understood this.  The birds of the air are also spoken of in the Old Testament. They symbolize the people of the nations who have lived under imperial oppression. The 1st century audience would have understood this as well. But it’s this problem of a mustard seed producing a large tree where all the birds of the air will make nests in its braches.  Branches…in weeds or shrubs? 

Jesus is persuading his audience to re-imagine a different reign—a different empire. The Roman Empire excludes the poor, the sick, the widow, and the orphan. Its laws create hunger and poverty.  Its tyranny destroys life.  Jesus is calling them to live a very different way, a way that is very different from this empire.  He is proclaiming the “good news:” with God, the un-imaginable is possible.  Yes, even the tiny mustard seed is capable of producing a tree and its branches will give life to all the suffering peoples.  Unlike the Roman Empire, God’s empire (the kingdom of God) supports life for the least of these.  The kingdom that Jesus proclaims is a kingdom marked by justice.  Could they imagine such an empire?  Can we imagine such an empire?  We can begin to make sense of this parable only when we begin re-imagining.  

Does this parable still speak today, to us?  Is it just as provocative now as it was then?  Are there similarities between the 1st century Roman Empire and the contemporary United States Empire? I can think of a few. Like the Roman Empire, the U.S. Empire desires peace. And like the Roman Empire, we so often seek peace through means of domination and the elimination of enemies. Who are the excluded in the U.S. Empire? Regardless of where you stand on the current healthcare debate, I think we can all agree that having 9 million uninsured children in the U.S. is a problem—a tragedy. Like the Roman Empire, we also have the poor and hungry in our midst. Jerry has probably spoken of this several times: right here in Denver, there are nearly 4,000 people who are homeless—more than 40% of them are women and children. If Jesus were to speak to our crowds, I wonder what he would say? Perhaps it would be very simple: “what you do to the least of these is what you do to me.”  If Jesus were speaking a parable to today’s church, I wonder what he would say?  Maybe it would have something to do with needing more braches on our mustard seed tree—branches that truly create space for the voice of the other.

So, I ask, what is the “kingdom of God like” in our context? Could we hear Jesus beginning the parable this way: “the kingdom of God is like Civic Center Park on Colfax & Broadway…” Now that’s a parable that doesn’t make sense! Can you imagine the crowd’s response: “Jesus, you must be a bit confused on Denver’s geography. Perhaps you meant Belmar Park in a nearby suburb—it’s clean, safe, and provides stunning mountain views. Or maybe you meant Wash Park—it too is clean and safe, and the people are mostly white. Jesus, surely you didn’t mean Civic Center Park.  “Those people” aren’t always clean; many of them may go a few days without showering. And it’s not entirely safe either—we hear that some of them may be into crack and heroin.” Jesus might respond, “It is time to re-imagine the kingdom.”  I have to tell you this story: after leaving Civic Center Park last Tuesday, just before flying to Israel, Jerry called me.  He said, “You’re not going to believe me, but I’m telling you anyway…two homeless guys started talking to me about the kingdom of God today. The first asked, ‘where do you think the kingdom of God is?’” Jerry replied, “I’d say it’s right here.” The man agreed, “That’s right!  It’s right here in this park.” 20 minutes later another man said something very similar: “The kingdom of heaven isn’t just some place after you die, it’s here—now!” I think the poor and homeless often have a better understanding of God’s kingdom than many of us do. 

Or maybe the kingdom of God is like the woman who entered the women cells of the county jail each week—not to convert them, not to condemn them, but to simply love them.  Nothing magical happened on these Tuesday afternoons, but this small seed of love began to grow. Now it is like a giant oak, and its branches provide safety for some single mothers who are unable to tuck their kids in at night; for some young ladies who have been abused and neglected; for the women who felt unloved their entire lives and now struggle to love themselves.  What is the kingdom of God like? The story begs to be told—the story begs to be lived.       

The parable of the mustard seed lends itself to interpretation. We, the hearers—the faith communities—must respond: “the kingdom of God is like…”  Allow me to make one suggestion in our response. Action is indeed necessary. But I think our groaning and our tears must precede our action. Healing cannot happen before grieving—to look squarely in the face of injustice. We stand in the midst of the empire and grieve for those who are unable to have life and have it abundantly. We cry with them and God hears these cries. Remember the story of the Exodus: God heard the groans of Israel while in Egypt, and God split the Red sea and made way for liberation.  Surely God will hear our cries.  May our tears lead us to the justice that rolls down like waters. 

Sunday, October 18, 2009

IT’S HARD TO BE GOOD

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Romans 7:15-20

15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.

I think all of us try to put our best face forward.  It is only natural that we want people to see us in the best possible light.  We want people to think well of us.  For some people it is easy.  Celebrities have it easy in this regard.  People want to like them.  My brother had his own talk show in Toronto for years and then produced and wrote for the #1 morning show in Detroit.  My own family and friends would often say they weren’t impressed with Gene and what he did and said that “kind of stuff” didn’t impress them. I would then watch how much more interested they were in what my brother Gene was up to than what was going on in my sister Joann’s life.  

Being with the homeless downtown is the reverse.  NO ONE seems to care what is going on in their lives.  I once heard someone say that to treat people right, treat famous people like they were regular folks and regular folks like they were famous.  I think that is good advice.

Sometimes, though, it is hard to treat anyone nice.  Usually it’s the guy in the car in front of me.  I try very hard to make the Jerry you see here be the same Jerry who writes his sermons at the kitchen table at home.  Laura will tell you how often I fail at that.  I struggle with materialism and ego just like the next person.  I have thoughts and actions that aren’t very holy.  I think I am better than I was, but far from as good as I can be

I can’t really claim ignorance. I know what to do. I know the “right” answer. I make my living studying the “right” answer, and yet, catch myself messing up time and time again. Why is that?

I did a little bit of research around this. Even when we try and “will ourselves” to do the right thing…i.e., eat less, curse less, send more thank you cards, call our parents, do better in school etc., it is hard.  Part of the reason is that new research is showing that will power is a muscle and actually gets weaker the more you use it.

 The August 4, 2009 issue of TIME magazine did a story on exercise.  It revealed that,
in 2000 in the journal, Psychological Bulletin, psychologists Mark Muraven and Roy Baumeister observed that self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it.  If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled.  Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza.

I think this can happen with our faith, too.  I think sometimes the harder we try to be good, the worse we do.  Thank God for grace….literally!  I’m not saying we don’t try to be good but we do look at it from a different place than “obligation.”

One of the ways discussed in the article was through the study of a clinical psychologist. He talked about the two primary modes of memory.  The first is called declarative.  It is the kind we most think of when we think of memory.  It is the kind we use to recall our phone number or describe the house you grew up in.  The second kind is procedural memory.  It is how we “remember” to ride a bike.  We feel it.  Letting someone “feel” what it is to ride a bike is much more successful than just “telling them” how to do it.

It turns out that most of our day-to-day life is spent with procedural memory.  It is the “how-to” of life.  We don’t just have a “how-to” in riding a bike in our memory, but also a how to for our relationships and how we treat others and how we have been treated.  Because most of the people we meet in our lives are people that are struggling along, just like we are, many of these memories are less than stellar.  We file these away and replay them.  We learn selfish, self-protective ways many times.

The answer in some way then, is to reprogram our procedural memory. I think we are in some ways doing that at AfterHours. For one, I love that it takes awhile to get you guys back in your seats after I tell you to greet each other. We are replacing the old, “Peace of Christ, peace of Christ,” with “how was your week or what’s your name, I don’t think we’ve met.”

We also do it by going out into the world. By reprogramming our lives and replacing poor ways of reacting and treating each other with positive ways to love and interact with the world, we get in the habit of loving. Every time you come and make lunches to feed a hungry world, you are replacing old the models of every man and woman for themselves, with a model that goes out and loves on the world.

One of the things that I like best about the Bible is how often God uses screwed up people to build a better world. We are not alone in this frustration of “wanting” to do good but “doing” bad. Our friend, the Apostle Paul, speaks directly to this issue. He says it this way, “15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.  

Granted, this is a little wordy, but the good news is; we aren’t in this alone. One of the biggest fans of Christ, one of the most famous preachers and evangelists of all time is telling us that essentially, “I screw up.”  Last week, Paul told us that he could be content in all things and all situations; in rich or poor, good or bad, he would be okay. And, by the way, he wrote that from prison!

This week he is telling us that even though he can be content with what is happening around him, he is not content within himself.  Paul wrote Romans around 56 AD.  Paul’s conversion experience occurred around 33 A.D.   He had been at this Christ thing for more than twenty years and he was still messing up!  The good news is that just a few verses later, he points out again, just like last week, that it is Christ that is his hope and strength.  He says it this way in verses 24-25, “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Once again, I am seeing a theme. We are in a partnership with God. We are to go out and be God’s hands and feet in the world, knowing that when we do we are changing our own script for how the way the world looks and acts, and in the process, gradually changing our understanding of those around us, through loving them.  And, for those times when we fail, we can rest in the certainty of a loving grace-filled, compassionate God who forgives us our short comings and it the process, gives us the courage to get up and try again, knowing that it is the Christ that dwells within us that makes us want to love the world in the first place.

That is just plan cool.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Challenges, Addictions & Struggles, Oh My!

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Philippians 4: 12-13

12I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. 13I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

This is one of the few scripture verses I have memorized. I learned a different version in a biblically based money management class. The point was to learn about contentment.

What I want to focus on is the last verse; ten words, that in many ways, are the source of our energy and inner power as Christians: I can do all things through him who strengthens me. 

I wanted to talk tonight about addictions. I will touch on the ones that first come to mind, drugs and alcohol, but I think there are two reasons not to focus solely on just those. First, I am not battling with either one of those addictions. Because of this, I can only talk with authority to a certain degree. There is something that rings false when someone who hasn’t been in the trenches starts telling you what the war is like. The second reason is that to limit the conversation of addictions, creates a field far too narrow. It allows some of us to go, “Oh well, I don’t have a struggle with either one of those two, so I guess I’ll just zone out on this message. Let me be clear.  I am NOT saying all struggles are alike. What I am saying is that we all have struggles.

Webster defines addiction as the “compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal.” It also offers a broader definition: persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful. I prefer the second. I would also expand it with the phrase, “known by the user to be harmful.” There are many things that can become addicting that are not harmful in and of themselves. You might be surprised by some of the addictions. The top 10 are:  

1. Alcohol
2. Smoking 
3. Drugs
4. Gambling
5. Food  
6. Video Games
7. The Internet
8. Sex
9. Shopping
10. Work.

As you can see, some of the addictions that have made the top of the list are not necessarily, in and of themselves, bad. Food? Work? The Internet? Sex? Those are all pretty great things…when their importance is in its right place in a person’s life. It is only when those things take on a greater importance than they deserve that we get into problem territory. In addition to that, not all addictions are alike.

In some alcohol addiction treatment programs, you are not to drink at all. Obviously, this rule can’t be applied with food addictions. I have struggled with almost half of the ones on that list at one time or another in my life. Facebook makes it pretty easy to log on, and before you know it, three hours are gone. Does that mean Facebook is evil? No. It has been of great use in my ministry in staying in touch with people and keeping up with their lives when face-to-face hasn’t been possible. I just have to watch that I don’t spend half a day going to mens.style.com and the Wine Spectators website.

We are all going to have, what a friend of mine calls, “demon committee meetings.” He means beating ourselves up over the fact that we are struggling with things that are changing our lives for the worst and making our lives unmanageable. This is in fact the first step in the twelve steps of Alcoholics Anonymous: “We admit we were powerless over alcohol – that our lives have become unmanageable.” This is a HUGE first step. It is saying we can’t do it alone.

When this letting go happens a breakthrough can begin. When we let go the breakthrough has already begun. But to just let go and do nothing else doesn’t help. It is in the next two steps that I think the real magic begins. It is a calling upon God.  

In the Twelve Step programs, they don’t get all hung up on what God is or isn’t. It is not a theological debate. It is the pragmatic understanding that there is something out there bigger than we are and the bigger thing is something we need to trust in. Steps two and three say it like this. Step two says, “Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.” Step three says, “Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand God.  “Came to Believe” and “Made a Decision” are important.

It is what Paul has done. Did you hear it in the scripture? Paul says, “In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret.” Paul, who many consider the first and greatest evangelist, had to LEARN to put his trust in God. This does not sound like something that came easy to Paul and we know from looking at his life, he did not have it easy. There were ship wrecks, jail time, and disappointment. His life was far from easy.

What he is telling us is that by putting his trust in Christ…in his “higher power, as he understands God to be,” he has found contentment. He did NOT find an easy life, just one in which he could rest. Isn’t that what so many of us want who are struggling with addictions and other challenges? We want rest. God gives us that. In fact, God’s gifts are two-fold: first God gives us rest by teaching us to let go and let God. We don’t have to take the ball and run with it, carrying the entire team on our back. It means that we participate but don’t do it all. We are always in partnership with God in our lives.  

The second thing putting our trust in God does for us is to give us strength. It reminds us that the power of God is within us and it is through this power that we are able to do ANYTHING. Not by our own greatness, but through the greatness that is present in each and every one of us.

Drugs and alcohol and porn and gambling are no match for God when we tap into that strength that lies at our core. The scripture doesn’t say I can do some things through God, most of the time, if the weather’s good. It says I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me.

When we release our struggles to God, handing them over and saying I can’t do this without you, we are beginning to turn the key that will release a power partnership that is without peer.  Challenges, Struggles and Addictions go from being, “Oh my” to “bye-bye”.

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Homelessness

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Mark 14:3-7

3While he was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 4But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way? 5For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the poor.” And they scolded her. 6But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. 7For you always have the poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you will not always have me.

There are few scripture verses that are more misunderstood than this one. I have struggled with this one in seminary and on bar stools. I have been most enlightened by Jim Wallis’s understanding and commentary on it from his book, God’s Politics. I am going dig into, what they call in Bible study, social context, to understand this scripture.

It is really easy to look at a story in the Bible and plop ourselves into it. Sometimes that’s GOOD. And, sometimes it helps to remember that, while our struggles as human beings are the same, the world we live in is different from the world in which many of the stories from the Bible took place.

Let’s look at this one. First let’s look at where they are LITERALLY. They are at the home of Simon the leper – The LEPER. They were at the home of someone they shouldn’t have been with in the first place. What were they thinking? Well, what they were thinking is that, this is what we always do. We are ALWAYS around the least of society. THAT IS WHAT WE DO. They were not hanging with the high and mighty of society. They were not with the Oprah’s and the Bill Gates and the Obama’s. They were with the least, the last and the lost.  As the kids would say today, that’s how they roll.

The woman from the story spends all this money on Jesus with this perfume and she totally gets yelled at. Jesus comes to her rescue and essentially says, “Listen, she was trying to do a nice thing. I am not going to be around you much longer, trust me. The poor will always be around you.

Jesus was not saying, “Don’t spend money on the poor because it isn’t going to help. They will still be here even if you did spend the money from selling the perfume. It is a no win game.” That is what a lot of people think Jesus was saying here, which, by the way, is SO out of character for Jesus it isn’t even funny.  What he WAS saying is, look, the poor will always be with you. I taught you to be with the poor. Be with the poor.  Never leave them. You know how we have been doing this.  We have always operated this way and I hope you will continue to operate this way after I’m gone. Don’t ditch the poor after I’m gone. Don’t start hanging around the rich and affluent at the cost of the poor. I always want to see my disciples with the poor. THE POOR WILL ALWAYS BE WITH YOU…because that is where I want you to be. I want you to love the unlovable. I want you to care for the ones uncared for. I want you to be with those no one else will be with. As Jim Wallis says, Jesus is assuming that the social location of his followers will always put them in close proximity to the poor and they will be able to easily reach out to them.

So in this way, the poor WILL always be with us if we are living this gospel in the way that Jesus intended us to.

It is when we are isolated from the poor that we miss this point We also are just guessing on why they are poor. It could be that by being with the poor we get to give them one of the best gifts we can. WE LISTEN TO THEIR STORIES.

 Let me tell you about Carl (not his real name).  I asked him how he is doing and this is what he said, “Me? I’m doing great. We have a great spot behind a pawn shop. We have a tarp to keep the rain off. There is a 24 hour conveyance store at the end of the alley and they have a security camera so we are doing great, we have a good spot. Some people out here are pretty bad off.”

 The poor will always be with us.  Let us always be with them.

Having said that, there are laws making it harder and harder to do just that.  We are seeing local governments across the country enact laws to prohibit sharing food with the homeless and poor, or to force them to designated areas.  The National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty and the National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH) have published a report on 22 such laws and their impact.  These laws make it illegal to share food with the homeless. These, to me, are laws that might have good intent, but they make God cry.  We are mandated to help the least of our brothers, and one way you do that is, “When I am hungry you feed me.”

There are other ways to help and our guest tonight is working with one of the agencies in this city that is doing an excellent job of doing just that.

Caroline Schultz is the Urban Education Coordinator for Denver Urban Ministries also know as DenUM. Let’s make her feel welcome.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Slow Down You Move To Fast

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Matthew 11:28-30

28“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Our computer died this week.  Screen went out.  Took it to Best Buy and they told me a new screen would be about a thousand bucks.  THAT wasn’t going to happen.  Luckily, I got a new Netbooks computer that I was able to buy with points saved up on my AmEx.  So we get it THE SAME DAY that the other computer dies.  Now the idea of me getting this computer was so that I could do my sermons on this one and Hudson and Laura could use the other one.  We had three people vying for the laptop.  We also have a desk top that was given to us but was from a business that was upgrading theirs and giving their old ones away.  It is awesome but doesn’t have anything on it.

So now we are trying to use these computers.  The Netbook has MSword on it but is so small it doesn’t have a CD-ROM so we couldn’t insert the disc to download the printer program.  We have a disc drive for the upstairs computer, but can’t find the disc.  We would just download the software onto it from the internet, but we don’t have internet for the big computer.  We do have the printer software loaded onto the old laptop, but the screen is dead.  To get this sermon in my hands, I had to write it on the Netbook and then it send to my work email from my Gmail account, open it at work and use the printer from there.  Hudson had to do his work, use a thumb drive, take that to school and then print it from there.

Explain to me how technology is making our lives easier?

We are all moving so fast.  Speed seems many times to be more important than accuracy.  It is easy to get exhausted in today’s world.

I would love to say that church is making things easier, but often that is not the case.  Now for me, I get it.  I signed on for this gig.  But often times I see the volunteer leaders running a million miles an hour as well.  Between committees and classes they are taking and classes they are teaching and reports they are writing and services and concerts and workshops and lecture series they are attending, they’re beat.  What’s worse is I don’t know what to do about it.  I thought about doing a class or seminar or workshop or lecture series on being over committed, but….well I think you see the problem.  THAT’S JUST ONE MORE THING TO DO.

I wonder what Jesus thinks of our crazy schedules.  As I read this passage, I can’t help but think Jesus is saying, “I know how crazy your world is.  Take a second. Rest.  My way is simple…but not easy.”

As we learned last week, over and over again the Bible keeps telling us that being in relationship with God and pleasing God and doing what God desires is not about rules and commandments.  It is not about obeying complicated dogma.  It is about loving God and loving others as yourself….which means you have to love yourself, too.

In Jesus’ day there were Rabbi’s who had an understanding of the Torah.  The Torah was the first five books of the Hebrew bible.  It was how they understood their holy book.  A community turned to the resident Rabbi to help interpret the Torah.  If you followed a certain Rabbi, you followed his interpretation of scripture and that synagogue understanding of the writings.  

We still do that today.  You attend AfterHours, at least in part, because you understand/agree with/like my interpretation of the Bible and like how we understand what’s important in the writings of this book.  People change churches all the time because they don’t like the way the Pastor understands scripture.  I guarantee we look at scripture different from many Baptist churches, many Lutheran churches and probably even some other Methodist churches.

Now in Jesus’ time, to follow the interpretation of a Rabbi, you followed what was called his “Yoke.”  Rob Bell talks at length about this in his book Velvet Elvis.  A Yoke was how a rabbi interpreted or understood the scripture.  It was how he understood how it is you joyously obey the Torah.  Remember, in Judaism, there are 613 commands, mitzvoth, given by God in the Torah.  It could get pretty complicated.  Sometimes these commands would come in conflict with each other.  It was often in these moments that the community would turn to the Rabbi to help interpret the right action to take. 

In the chapter following this passage we see two examples of Jesus’ “yoke” or understanding of the Bible and how he values human need over Sabbath observance.  This makes sense because Matthew wants to stress Jesus with his teachings.  

In this passage we are learning that Jesus is telling the crowd, his way is not complicated.  It is simple…and what is Jesus’ yoke?  He is asked in chapter 22 by the Pharisees who want to test him by asking his interpretation, his “yoke,” on how to joyously obey the Torah?  They ask him what the greatest commandment is.  Jesus gives them Deuteronomy. 6:5 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the greatest and first commandment.  Then he says, “And the second is like the first. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”   We know that shows up in the Bible seven other times.  It is interesting to note that they did not ask what the second was.  Jesus offered that up himself.  I believe this is because he sees them as so intertwined he didn’t want them to miss it. 

So what we are seeing is Jesus stating time and time again that, it is how we treat each other, that determines how we are living out the life God wants us to live.

Life can get so busy and so complicated.  Jesus is telling us it doesn’t have to be.  Remember what is truly important.  Remember what matters to God and Remember that it is an easy yoke.

You remembered what was important last week when many of you came and made lunches BEFORE the service last Sunday.  We did it again today.  

I was down in Civic Center Park last Tuesday with Paul Howard who runs Redemption Fellowship of Trinity United Methodist church downtown.  Paul has a heart for the homeless and those who have hit a rough patch.  Paul and I went down there with the intention of handing out the sandwiches, having a communion service and then packing up our stuff and heading out.  God had a different plan.  After we had set-up our folding table with a cross and a chalice of juice and a loaf of bread, we started handing out sandwiches.  We also handed out some bagels and apples that got donated from some of you here at AfterHours.  We never did a communion service, but make no mistake, we had communion.

“Communion" is a translation of the Greek koinōnía (κοινωνία).  The word, κοινωνία, is commonly translated "fellowship" in other contexts.  That’s what we had.  Paul and I agreed that even if we don’t do a communion service, we would still set up the table.  We love the idea that over time, the homeless in that park will know that when they come to the Lords Table…they will be fed.  

I had my own moment of getting clear with my own yoke while I was down there.  Towards the end of our time, as we were packing up, a gentleman came up to me and asked what I was going to do with the juice that was in the cup.  I asked him if he wanted it and he said yes.  For an instant my old Catholic roots rose up and I thought, “should I do this?”  It wasn’t even consecrated but just the idea of the juice going from the Chalice into a common water bottle gave me pause but that vanished pretty quickly as I started to pour.  I had to fight back tears as I poured the juice from the chalice into his water bottle held by his cold hands.  This was as much communion as anything I had ever been a part of.  This might not have been the traditional way of getting rid of the juice from the chalice but if I was to follow Jesus’ yoke, I realized it was putting human need over traditional orthodoxy.  It gave me chills.  As you do to the least of my brothers…

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can get bogged down in whether I am doing enough.  Here is what I have to constantly remind myself: Am I loving other people?  Am I loving myself?  Am I loving God?

Then I’m doing enough.

Slow down…you move too fast.   Rest in God and you will find rest for your souls. Jesus’ yoke is easy and his burden light.          

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Love Yourself

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Galatians 5:14
14For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

I started today’s topic knowing what I wanted to say and knowing the verse, but I must admit, I couldn’t remember where the verse was in the Bible. I was almost positive it was one of the Gospels, and I was pretty certain it was in Matthew. I was right, mostly. It is in Matthew…and Mark….and Luke…and Galatians…and Romans…and Leviticus...and James. It’s in the Bible EIGHT TIMES, EIGHT TIMES!  What does this mean? 

Do you know how many commands there are in the Bible? Any guesses? Take a stab. How about 6,468? There are people with time on their hands who count stuff like this. I bet you didn’t see that coming. Over six thousand!  And yet here in Galatians, we are told that the WHOLE LAW is summed up in a SINGLE commandment. 

For me…and I think this is true for most people as well…the loving my neighbor is the easy part or at least easier. Loving my neighbor is a piece of cake compared to the second part…as yourself. OH NO!  ANYTHING BUT THAT!  We, as a people, don’t do that very well. Last week we talked about lifting others up instead of tearing them down. I hope you were able to throw around a few compliments, cut down on the gossip, and lift your people up instead of tearing them down. Now comes the hard part. Lift yourself up. 

Many of us have some pretty mean tracks playing in our head. While I often think it wasn’t us who put those tracks there originally, we are the ones who keep the tracks alive. Sometimes the tracks we play are much meaner than the original tracks someone gave us. 

Loving ourselves might be the hardest commandment there is for many of us. I think those tracks keep us from living the life that God wants us to live. Remember, John’s Gospel tells us that God wants us to have life and have it ABUNDENTLY. That doesn’t mean multiple swimming pools, it means a life full of joy and happiness and fulfillment. I think what holds a lot of us back, it has held me back numerous times, is this difficulty with loving ourselves. Some of the names we call ourselves in our head are not all that kind. W.C fields put it well, “It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to.” So what do you answer to?

Here is the thing that we see over and over again in the Gospels. God’s love for us is unconditional. That means WITHOUT CONDITION. It is not, “when we do this…” or “when we fix that” about ourselves. This is not to say that we won’t change, but it is the act of unconditional love that makes us WANT to change. 

I’m going to freak some of you out now. God’s love is not about repentance. That would suggest that IF we do this or STOP doing that, then God will love us and that’s the wrong order. God loves us first. I think it is this act of unconditional love that gives us the desire to change. If it doesn’t go in this order, it’s just a contract. “Sign here,” so it looks like everything is in order. You agree to change, I’ll agree to love you. That is SO not God’s MO. 

I am reading an amazing book right now called The Orthodox Heretic: and other Impossible Tales by Peter Rollins. He has a Ph.D. in Post Secular Religious Theory and he looks like a Rock Star. He calls Belfast home and leads a community there called Ikon. In his book, he points out that we see time and again, in Jesus’ life and parables, that love and acceptance come first. 

In the prodigal son, the father goes running to welcome the boy back, not yet knowing if the boy is sorry and remorseful for leaving. The love comes first. When it comes to tax collectors and sinners, it wasn’t that Jesus was eating with people who used to lead a questionable life and who have now turned them around, (remember “Repent” means to change direction). The religious leaders loved a good, former sinner. It was the current sinners they had a problem with but Jesus didn’t. Remember Jesus wasn’t eating with FORMER tax collectors and FORMER sinners. Jesus loved them RIGHT WHERE THEY WERE. And he loves us right where we are as well. 

So the question is, if Jesus loves you right where you are, shouldn’t you? 

Again, this is not always so easy to do. One of the Herships favorite shows started up again this week. THE BIGGEST LOSER just started season eight. This season is called “second chances.” It is an inspirational show as it inspired me to go back to the gym the next morning at 5am after a ___ month hiatus. 

My concern and hope is that all the work and accomplishments help the contestants learn to love themselves a little bit more. You can see the self loathing on the show when a new season begins. As the season progresses, you see the contestants gain confidence. I always hope it sticks. 

The people on this show are not that different from you and me. We all beat ourselves up over our favorite hot buttons. Either it is our size or our looks or our age, or our finances, or our relationships, or our intelligence. I know it is really easy to forget that my excellence comes from being a child of God. I just don’t believe God cares much about our body fat or our bank balance or our IQ. God’s desire for us is to love each other AND ourselves.

So this verse appears in one form or another eight times. Bibles used to be a rare commodity. The printing press wasn’t invented until the 1400’s. Prior to that, very few people had Bibles. It wasn’t until the 300’s that the 66 books of the Bible were actually agreed upon as The Bible. Remember Bibles were originally written and rewritten by hand. It was long, tedious work. For something to even make it in the Bible was a pretty big deal. The fact that this commandment appears eight times suggests that this must be an important point. So important, in fact, that it shows up in the Old Testament, Paul’s letters…in multiple spots, and THE GOSPELS. It is clear the one behind the good book does not want us to forget this point. 

So are you doing it? What do you do to care for yourself? When was the last time you treated yourself to something? Do you even think you deserve to treat yourself to something? Now I am not talking about going out and spending beyond your means or being a glutton or flying off to Vegas. I am just saying that when someone suggests an idea that might be construed as pampering yourself, how do you react? What do you think of when someone suggests getting a pedicure or going out for an ice cream cone or maybe a nice steak? Kierkegaard said, “Don't forget to love yourself.” Often times this is easier said than done. 

Laura and I went to Dirk’s last Sunday after the service and got a couple of beers and some Nachos. It felt so decadent!  Loved having a Nacho’s and beer date with my bride!  Now we aren’t going to do that everyday and a PBR and a 7 layer dip is not exactly “going crazy.” But Sunday is a 13 hour day for BOTH of us and it feels good to treat ourselves every now and then. Do you give yourself permission to do that? 

Many of us have been raised to put ourselves last. While I see the selflessness of that attitude, what happens, many times, is that we get so burned out that there is nothing left to give others. This verse tells us to love our neighbor AS OURSELF. It is assuming we already love ourselves. Lucille Ball said, Love yourself first and everything falls into line. If we don’t treat ourselves well, we CAN’T treat our neighbors with love and kindness because over time, it will just build into animosity and resentment. It’s like when you fly and experience turbulence…put your own mask on first. It is the only way you will be of any use to others. Loving yourself is putting your own mask on first. 

The purpose of this section of Galatians is to instruct us on how, as Christians, we are to live our lives. It is practical instruction on what is the Christian basis for our day to day living. This is common in Paul’s letters. He starts off with a base, which is usually a high minded theological section and then moves into a Christian ethics section. While this letter was not addressed to us directly, because we are what is called, the secondary audience, it was addressed to the Galatians. We come to realize after looking at the letter for awhile that the people in that community struggled and wrestled with many of the same things we do today. We realize it addresses basic issues of Christian faith.

 I want to make sure I am clear about loving yourself. This is not the same as being selfish. In fact, as many of you know in this community, some of the best feelings you can have are when you are helping another. Helping others has to come from a place of joy, not a place of obligation or guilt. No matter what we are giving, it should come from a place of joy. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, the Bible itself teaches us that God loves a cheerful giver. Not out of compulsion or with regret. It is the same way with how we give our time and talents to others. When it comes from a place of joy, we receive the pleasure as well. The giving is a gift back to us. It is a way we can love ourselves. When we give from joy, the pleasure we receive back is a way to love ourselves. It is in the act of loving our neighbors that we find a true and timeless way of loving ourselves.

And with this we see the circle is unbroken. We see how loving others IS loving ourselves. One feeds the other. It is in the giving that we find our happiness. It is when we love our neighbor that we ARE loving ourselves. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is that feeling we get from putting our love out into the world. 

That good feeling will last a lot longer than a pedicure or beer and nachos…though don’t rule those out completely.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Gossip

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Leviticus 19:16
Do not go about spreading slander among your people.

Acts 13:15
Brothers, if you have a message of encouragement for the people, please speak.

I have a file of about 60 sermon topics that I have learned to compile once a year at a sermon writing retreat.  Having said that, it can feel a little too anal retentive to have ALL my sermons picked out and their dates selected ahead of time.  I feel I have to allow room for the Spirit to push its way into my crowded mental space that is packed with magazine articles and wine facts and fight its way to the top of my consciousness.  

I do this by looking around my life and seeing if there is a recurring theme that keeps popping up or look at what really pulled my focus this week.  Last week I told you that it was my own pride that forced me to take a look at that issue.  This week I want to look at something that I think most people do.  It is something that serves no good purpose to the person doing it or to the receiver.  All ages do it, in all socio economic classes, across all nationalities and races and it has been known to bring down people, companies, churches and governments.  Even when I am conscious of it…I still probably do it multiple times a day without even thinking about it and it is totally in contrast to the Gospel.  Most people think it is harmless which makes it even more dangerous.

I am talking about Gossip.

The bible actually has quite a bit to say about gossip.  I found over a dozen references to it just on first glance.  It is clear that this is a topic that, while we may feel it is harmless, the bible thinks differently.  Many people have the thinking of Alice Roosevelt Longworth, “If you haven't got anything nice to say about anybody…come sit next to me.”

Our society has managed to make an entire industry out of gossip.  When I was growing up, People Magazine, was the one magazine that I remember that focused on celebrities and celebrity gossip.  Now we only have to look as far as the check out line.  There is STAR and US and PEOPLE and NATIONAL INQUIRER and LIFE&STYLE to name just a few.  Often we will hear people saying, “Why do they print those?  Don’t they know they are ruining people lives with those rumors?”  Yet at the same time, we all know why they print them.  Magazines are only interested in the business of making money.  If they didn’t sell, they would go away.  But they do sell.  Why?

I think what we have when we talk about Gossip and Rumors and Slander is that, in the process of doing the gossiping, we get the chance, for just a second, to feel superior to another human being.  We get the chance to feel better than.  We get the opportunity…to judge.  It is when we come to this that we quickly realize, that as Christians, that is not our job.  Even Jesus himself tells us in John 3:17, “For God did not send his Son into the world to JUDGE the world.”  

I can’t help but think that if Jesus isn’t going to judge others, it might be in our best interest to not do it.  As Bertrand Russell has said, “no one gossips about other people's secret virtues.”  Luke 6:37 says, “Judge not and ye shall not be judged.”  

When we gossip it is almost always about tearing others down and building ourselves up.  In doing this, I think it can often make us feel better about our own lives.  I think this is why celebrity gossip is so popular.  It is a way for regular people to put themselves above the celebrities.   All other measurements fail.  They are often prettier, wealthier and more popular than we are.  When we find a kink in their armor, it is our chance to say, “Well, I don’t have THAT going on in my life.”

While I don’t think it is healthy to have too steady a diet of celebrity gossip (of which I gorged myself on for years), I think the more dangerous form is with those people around you; your family, co-workers and friends.  Not only are we judging them, in many cases, these rumors can go on to hurt the people around us deeply.  It isn’t good for us and it isn’t good for others.  When I look back at the moments when I have gossiped, it was almost always to subtly build myself up at the cost of others.  When we truly recognize that our worth comes to us as children of God, and no where else, we realize we don’t have to tear others down to make ourselves look good.

We have in our power though something that will not only stop rumors and gossip, it will actually turn around the damage.  The author of Acts is talking about it in our second Bible passage.  It is words of encouragement.

What we know about Acts is that it is the story of the beginning of the church.  It is the second part of a two part story.  Part one is The Gospel of Luke.  Christian communities were just beginning to form and they were going through growing pains.  Acts is the only New Testament book that tells the beginning and expansion of the church.  A good portion of it, about one-third, is people making speeches.  Acts is a book that tells us how to be the church in non church culture and a book that reveals the relationship of the church to the secular world.  Here in Chapter 13 verse 15, Paul is asked to give a word of encouragement.  He is being asked to preach.  The NRSV uses the phrase, “word of exhortation.”  This was a technical term in Jewish homiletics for an edifying sermon or homily concerning God’s saving acts in the history of Israel.”

While we are not often asked to give, “words of exhortation,” we are called to, as Paul was asked to, give words of encouragement to each other.  In case you haven’t noticed, it can be a bit of a rough world out there.  We need to be there for each other and one of the best and easiest ways is to give each other a word of encouragement.  I sometimes think we are so cautious because we don’t want to give each other a big head that we decide that, rather than chance it, we just won’t say anything at all.  I say the heck with that.  Let’s take the chance that we might give each other big heads.  Let’s encourage each other.  Let’s lift each other up.  You might be surprised by how great it makes you feel to make others feel good.

I have a friend at work that is constantly telling me not to let others get me down. ,  constantly telling me to stay positive and be happy.  That is such a positive thing in my life.  I also got an email this week that made my year.  It wasn’t flowery and fancy and it didn’t go into sugary sentiment, but it was the nicest email I ever remember getting.  That will carry me for weeks, maybe longer.   I wonder how hard it was for that person to write that Email?  I think a lot of times, words of encouragement are the best return on your investment of kindness there is out there.

I think words of encouragement can become addicting.  They often say that in order to stop a bad habit, you need to replace it with a good one.  I am going to try to do that this week.  I am going to try to replace all the gossiping, rumoring and bad mouthing that I have done with words of encouragement.  I encourage you to join me.  I think we can literally change people’s moods, days and lives through words of encouragement.

This past week, I was at a prayer breakfast for DenUM, Denver Urban Ministries.  A woman got up and talked about how her life was changed and she was able to break free of destructive patterns in her family because she had people who came into her life and believed in her and encouraged her.  Those words of encouragement and belief changed her life.

Whose life is out there waiting for you to change it?

Sunday, September 06, 2009

The Worst Sin

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Proverbs 16:18

 18Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

I want to do something a little different tonight.  I want to read a quote from C.S. Lewis the Christian writer who lived from 1898 to 1963. Then I want to read our scripture and go into the message.

                                            C.S. Lewis writes in his book, Mere Christianity:

“There is one vice of which no person in the world is free; which every one in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else; and of which hardly anyone ever imagines that they are guilty themselves.

There is no fault which makes a person more unpopular, and no fault which we are more unconscious of in ourselves.   And the more we have it ourselves, the more we dislike it in others.”  Have you guessed it yet?  It is pride.

Lewis goes on to say, “I pointed out a moment ago that the more pride one had, the more one disliked pride in others.  It is because I wanted to be the big noise at the party that I am so annoyed at someone else being the big noise.  The point is that each person's pride is in competition with every one else's pride.

Which brings us to our Bible passage today?

Scripture Proverbs 16:18

              18Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs comes to us from the Hebrew Bible, what Christians call the Old Testament.  It is introduced as the Proverbs of Solomon, but there are few if any scholars that would accept that Solomon penned this himself.  Rather they represent the “wisdom” of Solomon.  In most cases these sayings were passed down from father to son or from teacher to student.  The sayings were designed to help the student succeed in life and were highly pragmatic.  They were not just focused on religion.  

In chapter 23 we are given advice on table manners in case you are invited to dine with a ruler.  I guess that could come in handy.  When we look at chapter 16 verse 18, we see that pride has been a known stumbling block for a long time, all the way to today.

I have a friend who is speaking at a religious conference. And I started looking at the line up of speakers and checking out their websites. They are rock stars with books, seminars, and panel discussions. Their websites list their touring schedules. THEIR TOURING SCHEDULES, I’m not EVEN kidding. Make no mistake, I totally get the hypocrisy of me calling that kettle black.  I have a website, a Facebook page, and I Tweet.  I have a book, albeit in my head.  

I have been of that world and I guess this is what brought this week’s topic to the surface. I had a moment when I thought to myself, “When are we bringing glory to ourselves and when are we bringing it to God?” Are we pointing the way to God or are we pointing a bit to us? I also realized, about half way through writing this sermon, that what bugged me about these conference speakers, was my pride rearing its ugly head.

I had someone say to me recently that this service was all about me.  I don’t buy that.  I do buy it about a lot of traditional services, however.  I think that is one of the problems of celebrity preachers. 

Now there is only one thing worst than pride and that is false humility. I do think some people come to hear what I have to say, to see if it rings true in their lives. I buy that. But I, also, think there are as many, or more, that come because of the music.  I think a huge portion of the people that come to AfterHours come for the community or the service element.  They dig that what they do TODAY helps a fellow human being TOMORROW.

Laura emailed me this week.  The subject line was, “Cereal is off the list!”  She went to the Denver Urban Ministries (DenUM) website on Wednesday and saw that cereal was no longer on their list of most needed items. Afterhours and St. Andrew single handedly eliminated DenUM’s desperate need for breakfast cereal in our inner city!  You should feel AWESOME about that.  

I think that is part of the reason people come to AfterHours. Some people come for the fact that we are big on the non-judgment piece. That’s part of our tag line, More Love, More Laughs, Less Judgment.  When I have all my baggage and junk figured out, I will tell you how to fix your stuff. Until then, let’s try to get through this together with God’s help.

It is safe to say most of us have pride issues in some area of our life. We start to think we are all that and we forget to give credit where credit is due.

I saw a band play a gig at St. Andrew right after we moved to Orlando from L.A. After the band played, I ran into the lead singer backstage. I said, "Wow, you were great." He said, "God's great. Thanks though." He said it with not a hint of piety or holier-than-thou-ness. I was so taken aback that I didn't know what to say. That to me was the polar opposite of pride. That is a business where it is so easy to think that it is, all about you, when in reality, it’s safe to say that God had a hand in it.

Last week I quoted the Nelsen Mandela inauguration speech that was written in part by Marianne Williamson. Part of that speech says, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?  You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.  We are all meant to shine.

Wait. Isn’t that prideful? Isn’t that saying, “Look at me!  Look at how great I am!”? Well….kind of. It is saying we are great. But that’s not pride. Pride is when we say we are ABOVE others, especially above God. The rest of that speech says, “We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us. It’s in all of us.  We are doing two things by doing that; we are acknowledging that any greatness we have comes from God and it levels the playing field.  It says we are ALL great.

That is not normal.  It is not natural.  Try this.  Turn to the people at the table you are sitting at and tell them, “You’re great!”  Go ahead, even the cool people.  I’ll wait. Now say, “And by the way, I’m great too!”  Now let me ask you, which was harder?  We have been trained to not own the greatness that is in us as a result of being a child of God.  It has been taught that this is prideful.  It isn’t.  It is only when we separate ourselves from God that it becomes prideful.  Own how great you are and remember how that came about.

Pride is not thinking you are great. It is putting others down and yourself up. C.S. Lewis got this really well in his book, Mere Christianity. That first part I read was from the chapter called, “The Greatest Sin.” I totally ripped off the title of this message from that chapter. This is how he says it.  "Pride isn't saying you are rich, and handsome and successful, it's saying you are richer, more handsome and more successful than THAT guy!"  It is the comparison piece that gets us in trouble, especially when, “THAT guy” is God. (Excuse the gender specific lingo.)

Here are a couple of examples where God was “the other guy.”

The first one that comes to mind is Adam and Eve. They ate because in Genesis Chapter 3, verse 5 the serpent told them, “You will be like God.” Well we made it to the third chapter before we started thinking, you know, being God would be a pretty sweet gig. And we never turned back. We have been trying to grab the reigns from God ever since.

We are not the only ones. Isaiah 14:14-15 tell us about Lucifer, “14I will ascend to the tops of the clouds, I will make myself like the Most High.” 15But you are brought down to Sheol, to the depths of the Pit.”  WOW!   Wrong answer.

Understand that God does not want us to put ourselves above God because of an ego issue with God. It has more to do with the fact God knows this will be a huge wall that will go up between God and every individual who thinks they are better than God.

This sin of Lucifer thinking he was better than God was the first sin. Way to go Lucifer! You screwed it up for everybody. Pride was the sin of Satan. And when we think we are better than God, well, we are in lousy company.

We do this, on a smaller level, every time we think to ourselves, “I can handle this.”  We are essentially saying, “I don’t need God for this one.”  We need God for everything.  Go to God with all your needs.  In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, he tells us that God will provide all our needs (Phil. 4:19).  

We can so easily get into the mode of, “I can handle that.  I don’t want to bother God with that.” Yea, cause God can only handle so much?  Please. God is GOD! God can handle it. Take EVERYTHING to God. When we think, I don’t want God to handle this, I want ME to handle this, then it can become a form of self-worship. I am big enough to handle this.  That is when, in our own little way, we want to be God.

Paul says it again in 1 Corinthians 4:7. "What do you have that you did not receive?  And if you received it, why do you boast as though you did not?"  His point here is, if it came from God, don’t think you are such a big deal for having it, and by the way…IT ALL CAME FROM GOD.  Again, I’m paraphrasing.

So again, how do we keep our pride in check?  By constantly giving credit back to God.  Our God is truly an amazing God.  We see it all the time by how God works through us.  Our little breakfast drive was a great example.  That was an awesome thing we did.  But let’s not get caught up in saying how great we are or how great AfterHours is or how great St. Andrew is.  It is God who gets the applause.  We are just doing the work we have been called to do. 

I want to close with one more line from C.S. Lewis.  He tells us how we can find out how prideful we are.  He says it like this:

“ If you want to find out how proud you are, the easiest way is to ask yourself, 'How much do I dislike it when other people snub me, or refuse to take any notice of me, or patronize me, or show off?'

Personally, I can’t stand people that do that. 

So, as long as you are okay coming to a service where your pastor is constantly committing the worst sin…I encourage you to walk with me as we battle our challenges together.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Passion
First in a Three Part Series – Living With the P’s

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Colossians 3:23

23 Whatever your task, put yourselves into it, as done for the Lord and not for your masters

My fear is that this will come off sounding like a Tony Robbins seminar.  I used to be a big fan of those self-help seminars.  I never went to his seminars (I didn’t have the money and his teeth scared me) but I still liked how I felt after I left one of those seminars: Pumped up, motivated, ready to take on the world. The problem was it often faded. When I didn’t reach my goals I felt like a LOSER!  And to make matters worse, usually people like Tony Robbins would make me feel that if his program didn’t work…it was MY FAULT. I wasn’t doing the program right.  While this might be true, I always found it interesting that the solution to get me back on track…was one more seminar!

I am not going to tell you to take one more seminar.  I am not going to tell you that you aren’t disciplined enough, and I am not going to ask you to buy my tapes.  I am going to tell you what the Bible says about living your life with Passion.

One of the things that the church is big on with clergy is taking care of themselves.  They use the fancy words, “self-care.”  It is this idea that we do what we need to do to take care of ourselves.  Eat right, exercise, devote time to spiritual development, that sort of thing.  One of the big things they suggest is that when you are away from work, be away from it.

I think it was Zig Ziglar, who was Tony Robbins before Tony Robbins was born said it well, “when most sales people are at work, they think should be home with their family and when they are with their family, think they should be at work.”  It is really hard to leave it completely.  I think part of this is true but I also think it is harder to do than to say.

For many of us, work is our Mistress and I think when we like what we do, it is easy to blur the lines.  Actor Warren Betty was asked to define success and he said, “You never know whether you are working or playing.”

If this is the definition of success, I know I worked at jobs that I wasn’t very successful in most of my life.  The passage in Colossians tells us that even when we aren’t thrilled with the work we are doing, we need to focus on giving it to God as an offering.  We need to do it with our whole heart, with passion.  I RARELY did that as I worked jobs throughout my life.  I KNEW when I was sorting break pads into 55 gallon drums in the back of an auto parts store in Detroit with an asbestos mask on…that I was working and not playing.  When I was a busboy at a Coney Island hot dog joint, rinsing cigarettes and chili off the plates, I was working not playing.  When I was 30 and folding jeans at the GAP, I was not playing.  And I can honestly say, I don’t think I did one of those jobs and really “put myself into it.” And, that was a disservice to God.

We have two issues here. One, finding work you love and that you are passionate about and two, how to offer up the work you are doing when it might not be your dream gig.  In both cases, this passage is telling us we need to do it as if our boss is God.  I KNOW that this was so much harder to do when I hated my job.  In fact when this letter from Paul was first written, it would have been heard by a number of people who were slaves.  The message for them was that of letting your service be for the Lord who is master to all.  This did not excuse the practice of slavery but was saying that regardless of circumstance, remember that our ultimate boss in God.  As I said, it is so much easier to “work for God” when we love our job, so it seems to me we should all be trying to do that thing that we can do with passion and, as one translation puts it, “with all our heart.”

How do you find that? One way is when time flies by. I think when a person loses track of time doing a particular task, they need to look at that. What do you do that you are so passionate about that you don’t even notice the clock? Don’t discard that. I don’t believe that Jesus got up every day and went, “Oh man, there’s the buzzer. I don’t want to get up, AHHH; more preaching and healing and walking on water….please just 5 more minutes.” I think he jumped out of bed. I think he lived his life with passion.

I find myself on every day off saying, “Today, I will do absolutely nothing that has to do with Afterhours.” I couldn’t do that if I tried. I have tried. It is impossible. I am always thinking what can make it better. I’m thinking, “That would make a good quote,” or that song would work for a sermon I’ve got coming up. Or, what about champagne buckets instead of offertory baskets?” We are still trying to get trustees to approve that one.

We have to take time to recharge. Jesus did it all the time. You read about him going off alone to pray. But I think there is a difference between recharging and trying to forget. When I had lousy jobs that were Monday – Friday, I would start to get miserable by about Sunday noon because I knew Monday was right around the corner. That is NOT God’s plan for our lives.  

A few weeks ago, we talked about John 10:10 where God wants us to have life and have it abundantly.  Life is not supposed to be a drag.  Change it.  I am not saying to give up your day job tomorrow, however.  

I am reading a great book called, Ignore Everybody: and 39 other keys to creativity.  One of the chapters is, Don’t Quit Your day Job.  What it says, and I agree whole heartedly, is to make sure you include your life’s passion a little bit everyday.  You might have to get creative to do this.  I love wine and men’s clothes but that doesn’t mean I should drink a bottle of wine every night and go shopping everyday.  But I can read about wine or surf the blogs about men’s style and fashion. The key is to not completely edge it out of your life until maybe you can find a way to make it your life’s work.

God gave each of us unique things in a unique combination that no one else in the world has.  I think our passion is buried somewhere deep inside.  And I believe God wants us to find and use this passion.  

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”  Remember that we talked about enthusiasm before.  It comes from the Greek meaning "inspired by or possessed by God".  Last week we talked about God being within us.  Our enthusiasm or passion is God possessing us.  

The problem for many of us is that, in some ways, we have had those passions and enthusiasm beat out of us at a young age.  Gordon MacKenzie, the guy who wrote the book I talked about last week, Orbiting the Giant Hairball, tells a story about when he goes to schools to teach art classes to elementary school kids.  He teaches each grade separately.  He teaches first graders in first period, second graders in second period and third graders in third period and so on.  In each class he asks an interesting question.  “Who else here is an artist?”  In the first grade group, every hand goes up. Every child is an artist.  In second grade about half the hands go up and in the third grade, 10 out of 30 hands go up.  By the sixth grade, no more than 1 or 2 hands are raised and then, guardedly.  Do not let this world crush your passions. THAT IS NOT PART OF GOD’S PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE.

This week, I wrote a friend, Barry Kooser, and asked him how he kept the world from knocking the artist out of him.  Barry went to one of the best art schools in the country, got an internship with Disney Studio and while still in school, he got offered a job by Disney animation.  When he got out of school, he went on to work on Brother Bear, Lelo & Stich, Mulan, and Lion King.  He then left to go out and be a full time landscape artist whose works are shown in some of the best galleries in the country including Carmel and Palm Desert, CA and Scottsdale, AZ.  His art hangs in some of the nicest homes in the country. 

He told me he was lucky because other people in his family were artistically inclined and encouraged him and didn’t shut him down.  He also said the same thing about schools regarding sucking the creativity out of kids at a young age.  I think there are always exceptions, but sadly I think we have to cultivate that small voice inside us, the school and others aren’t going to do it for us.

And as I have said before, I think that still, small voice, is God.  I think God knows how much easier it will be for us to work with passion and offer it up to God when we truly see it as a work of art for God.  That doesn’t just go for the job that we are getting paid for but for our whole life as well.  Live it with passion and in such a way that you can offer it up to God and say, “Look what I did!”

Gordon MacKenzie’s book ends with his beliefs about what happens when you were born.  He says God asks one last thing before you are launched into the world.    God says, “Do me a favor.  Would you take this artist’s canvas with you and paint a masterpiece for me?  I’d really appreciate that.”

Go out and paint God a masterpiece of your life.  Work from the heart, and offer it to God.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

WHAT’S THE THIS?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Luke 22:19-20 19Then he took a loaf of bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ 20And he did the same with the cup after supper, saying, ‘This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.

Third year courses at Iliff have a lot of MDiv., Master of Divinity, candidates in them and a lot of people working towards their PhD. The courses are 10 weeks and, in the bible track, they focus on just one book of the bible. The idea of the class is that you write a 10-20 page paper, read it out loud and then someone else, who got your paper ahead of time, reads a 2-3 page paper ripping your paper to shreds. Then the class chimes in, taking their cracks at you. Finally, the professor comments. It’s fun for the whole family.

After the blood letting part is over, we are having a round table discussion about the passage in 1 Corinthians where Paul is talking about the last supper. We get to the part where he quotes Jesus saying, “Do this in memory of me.” As we are about to move on I decide to try to get a question answered that has been bugging me for years. I raise my hand and ask the professor, Pam Eisenbaum, “Pam, what’s the this? Pam has taught at St. Andrew many times. She looked at me like I had two heads, which I took to mean, I wasn’t making sense. The question I was asking was…When Jesus says, “do THIS in memory of me.” What is the “this” he was referring to? No one in the class had a positive answer. Not Pam, not the PhD students and not the rest of us. I have been giving this a lot of thought though because communion is near and dear to my heart. I’m going to give you my thoughts as to what Jesus was referring to.

Communion is close to my heart because, as I have mentioned in here before, I grew up Catholic. I went to a Catholic school and was an altar boy. This means I attended Mass six days a week. And we do communion at ever service. That is a LOT of communion! I can still recite the prayers the priest does for communion, as well, if not better, than the ones we say for the Methodist church and that’s only once a month.

So what is the deal with communion? What is this thing called, “The Holy Mystery?” In fact the Greek word for sacrament is mysterion. Well it means different things to different people. The Catholics believe that after the elements (the bread and wine/juice) have been consecrated, there is not bread or wine left. They have changed. This is called Transubstantiation. Lutherans believe that Christ’s body and blood are present in the bread and wine. This is called consubstantiation. Methodist’s see it a little differently. We believe that these things are symbols of the Christ body and blood. We still bless the elements but we don’t believe that they change their essence.

Having said all that, as I think I have mentioned here before, you should have seen me the first time I did communion in the chapel here at St. Andrew. One of my professors at Iliff used to talk about your embedded theology and how even when you think one thing with your head, it can sometimes be a challenge for your heart to follow. Having watched the priest do it 60,000 times it felt pretty weird doing it that first time.

So all that is to say, “So what?” What does this “thing” called communion mean for us today? And getting back to where we started, What is the “this”?

There are lots of things going on in communion: thanksgiving, fellowship, sacrifice are just a few. But what I want to focus on is this idea of remembering. I think even though Jesus was celebrating the Passover meal with his friends, he was not suggesting that every time you have Passover, once a YEAR, you remember Jesus. I also don’t think Jesus was saying, “Someday what we are doing here is going to be HUGE and well organized and they are going to worship together once a week and when they do that, I want them to remember me, except the Methodist’s who will only remember me once a month.” That doesn’t seem consistent with Jesus and what he was trying to get across to the disciples.

What I think Jesus was thinking was, “How can I get these guys to remember everything I have taught them even after I’m gone? They are going to forget stuff unless they are constantly remembering. What do they have to do to sustain life? What do they have to live? How can I connect these teachings that I have given them, these things that will lead them to eternal life, to the life they need to sustain while they are here on earth? What do they have to do to have life both now and later?

See I think the “this” is eat. Not just once a month or once a week or even once a day. I think it is every time we take food into our mouth. Jesus was connecting his work with the thing we have to do multiple times a day. I think Jesus was telling us that when you do what you have to do to sustain life in the physical, don’t forget all I have taught you about how to sustain life in the spiritual. REMEMBER ME.

Remember what I taught you about loving those no one else loves.

Remember what I taught you about how to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

Remember what I taught you about how to fight for justice…

and how to pray…

and how to take up a cross.

Remember what I taught you about how to love God, and how to love each other.

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