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Sunday, March 13, 2011

Jesus The Wild Messiah of Love

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Mark 8:27-30

²⁷Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸And they answered him, “John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹He asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Messiah.” ³⁰And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Clearly, we are not the first ones who have struggled with who Jesus is. We read here that His own disciples weren’t certain. This makes me not feel so bad as I wrestle with who Jesus is to me.

We know the standard answers, the “churchy answers:” Son of God, Son of Man, Messiah, The Christ, The Anointed one, Emmanuel, God incarnate. Even if we can say that, what does all that mean? I think it comes down to each of us wrestling with and asking the question, Who is Jesus to me?

Despite the pictures you often see, that probably isn’t what Jesus actually looked like. The traditional ones are the ones I grew up with. Today my preference is something more like the Laughing Jesus or the Buddy Jesus.

In reality, Jesus probably looked more like this. If he were anything like the men of his day, and we have no reason to believe he wasn’t, he would have had short black cropped hair, probably 5'4”- 5'7”, 120-140 lbs and dark skin. He definitely did not have long, flowing, blond hair and blue eyes.

            Most people don’t spend much time thinking about what Jesus looked like. They think about who he was. What was he like? How did he conduct himself? What was important to him? What did he spend his time doing and talking about?

            I think somewhere along the way, we have developed a different understanding of who Jesus was. Just like the difference between a fair, blond haired, blue eyed, Jesus and one with cropped dark hair, dark skin and middle-eastern features, we have in some cases done the same thing with the persona and character of Jesus.

            I don’t believe Jesus was meek and mild. He was the wild messiah of love.

            Some things I believe about Jesus of Nazareth:

I believe Jesus loved a good party. We see over and over again in the scriptures, that Jesus was going to a banquet or a feast. Jesus was not a guy who acted like a hermit, just hanging out with his 12 buddies and staying sequestered away with prayer and suffering all the time.

Jesus was out in the world. He enjoyed life. I think if Jesus were here in Denver today, he would be at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and a Rockies game and the Great American Beer Festival. Jesus always wanted to be where the people were. He enjoyed spending time with others and there was almost always food and drink there. Jesus understood that when we gather together to eat and drink, we bond in a way that is almost impossible without those things. We become, if only for a short while, family. This was even truer in the first century. When food was present, it was a sign of coming together.

I believe Jesus also took time for himself. We all need to refuel. Jesus was constantly going off to pray. He knew that even though being with people, both friends and strangers, was important, so was finding his center. Jesus was intentional about taking time to be in prayer, to connect to God and to discern his next steps.

I believe Jesus hated labels and hypocrisy. Jesus didn’t get angry a lot but when he did, it was usually at the religious authorities and the self righteous. His harshest words were for those who thought too highly of themselves. Jesus didn’t even claim specialness in this regard. When someone called him good, he responded by saying that only his father in heaven is good. It was in this way that Jesus was able to relate to ANYONE. He saw all of us as equals and couldn’t stand it when anyone places themselves above anyone else.

            One of the lessons I learned in an unusual way was back when I was in my early 30’s. I was working two jobs at the same time: I was touring with a PR company doing shows with Dick Clark…and working at the GAP. I remember getting picked up at home by a limo, being taken to the airport, flying first class, and staying at four star hotels every week. I would then get brought home, drop my bags, change my clothes and go punch in to fold jeans at the mall. I CLEARLY remember the respect I got as an ENTERTAINER working with Dick Clark. I was treated like a star, and I also CLEARLY remember how I was treated when people of all ages would come in to the store and boss me around…at 30.

Lots of people have had minimum wage jobs, but not a lot of people had them on a Monday through Friday and then on the weekend has limos, first class and the Ritz-Carlton. This showed me, first hand, how radically different people treat each other depending on their job, social status and income. This was not and is not the message of Jesus. Jesus didn’t care if I was stacking jeans or opening for Dick Clark, Jesus treats me and everyone else exactly the same.

I believe Jesus has a special place in his heart for the poor and marginalized. I think this is just a fancy way of saying Jesus cared about people who were having a hard go of it. Jesus loved those that society cast aside. This was wild love to be sure. Whether they were prostitutes or criminals or tax collectors, Jesus spent time with people and gave them dignity. That is what we hand out in Civic Center Park – Dignity. It may LOOK like a pair of socks, a bottle of water, or a sack lunch, but what we are really giving away is compassion and caring and a reminder to everyone that they matter to God and if they matter to God then they should matter to us.

I have absolutely no doubt that if Jesus were walking around today, after he went to the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, and a Rockies game, he would be hanging out with our friends without homes down in Civic Center Park. As Marcus Borg says in his book titled Jesus, “The Judgment that Jesus speaks about in Matthew 25 will not be based on membership in a group, or on beliefs, or on rule keeping, but on deeds of compassion.”

Most of all Jesus loved people, which leads me to this point.

I believe it is our job to be like a “little Jesus.” We are not to just praise and honor and give glory to God and Jesus; we are to try to follow Jesus. This is NOT done for one hour on a Sunday morning. It is how we are to live our life every day. This does not have to be drudgery. But I believe we have to be intentional.

Are we out in the world? Or do we just hang out with church folks? Do we enjoy life? This is a great world we have been given, we need to be willing to enjoy it. Was it Auntie Mame who said in the Broadway show named after her, “Life is a banquet and most damn fools are starving.”

Are we taking time for ourselves, to care for ourselves and connect with the sacred and holy? This is a place where I fall short all the time. It is so easy to just be go, go, go. I’m guessing that others need to slow down, take it easy and do their best to connect with God.

Do we fight against labels and hypocrisy? Do we treat the person at Starbucks and the Dry Cleaner the same as we do our Pastor and Bosses? Do we even know the name of any of the people who wait on us week in and week out? I truly believe Jesus would. I slip on this all the time but think I am doing much better than I did before. Are we really seeing people through Jesus’ eyes? That is the goal, to see others as Jesus would see them.

Do we have a special place in our heart for those on the edges of society? I think this community has proven over time that is does have a special place for the migrant worker. Jesus said, “When I was a stranger, you welcomed me.” We are living that out every time we make and deliver sandwiches to El Centro. I know this community has a special place for those without homes. And I remember the words of Jesus, “When I was hungry…”

I believe it is our job to continue on our quest to be “Little Christ’s.” No matter how radical our love is for others, it won’t be as radical as Jesus’ was. It is our job to reclaim the wild, crazy, reckless love that Jesus showed for the world.

When we gather together like this, one last time in two weeks, I will talk more about how we are to carry on the work of AfterHours, and more importantly, the work of Jesus, in the weeks, months and years to come.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

What You Must Know About the Bible

By Rev. Jerry Herships

II Timothy 3:15-17

¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

One of the hardest things I had to overcome when I first began preaching and actually formal ministry in general was talking about the Bible. There were only two kinds of people who talked about the Bible, Bible scholars and Over the top Jesus Freaks. I was neither one. I still struggle with some of the things I say sounding too “Churchy” or “Holier than thou” or “crazy church person.”

            There is a lot to know about the Bible, and without question it has been used as a heck of a weapon to argue everything from pro-Slavery to anti-homosexuality to why women should not talk in church.

            In his new book The Rise and Fall of the Bible, Timothy Beal, Professor of Religion at Case Western Reserve University, made the statement, “There’s no such thing as the Bible…and there never was.” Here is more of what he had to say.

            There is no “the Bible,” no book that is the one and only Bible. There are lots and lots of Bibles. They come in many different physical and digital forms with a great variety of content – different canons, translations, notes, commentaries, pictures, and so on.”

He goes on to say, “Don’t believe me? Next time you’re in a bookstore, check out the huge Bible section, or just type “Bible” in the search box of an online store, and prepare to be overwhelmed. The Bible business sells more than 6,000 different products for over $800 million a year. These are all sold as “The Bible.”

He said, even more surprising than all the diversity of Bibles on the market today, that there is no pure original, no Adam from which all Bibles have descended. “During the time of Jesus, there were many different versions of Scriptures in circulation, and no central publishing house or religious authority to standardize the process.”

He goes on to say that the same is true of the early Christian movement. He points out that, “… it wasn’t until the 4th century that there was even an official canon of Christian Scriptures. Even then, moreover, there were lots of unofficial varieties….the further we go back in history, the more biblical variety we discover.

I don’t believe the Bible is the mind of God. I believe the Bible is mankind’s understanding, throughout centuries, of the mind of God. I believe it speaks to peoples understanding of God and God’s character. I believe there is wisdom in it that is as applicable today as it was then AND I think there are things in it that are better to understand in the time and place they happened. One of the great features of the Bible is that it is a collection of events that happened in specific times and places AND at the same time, is timeless.

            I believe that it is a document that is so layered and complex that every time we look at it, we can see something different in it, even though we are looking at the same words. 

            I have started to, and I believe everyone has to stop being afraid of it. We need to continue to honor it and respect its words, but we have to be careful we don’t begin to worship IT. It is only a tool to point us towards God who deserves our love and praise. When we begin to worship the Bible, we begin to turn it into a God…and we know that isn’t right.

            I did two things I don’t always do when preparing for a sermon. One was I went online and asked the Facebook community: What is the thing people MUST know about the Bible? I got lots of responses. Some of my favorites were: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” “There is no single “right” understanding of what it says or means.” “Just be a kind person.” “Every person is of infinite value to God.” “It is available to them with God's love to wrestle with, disagree with and question and still never losing God's love.” And finally, when I asked the question, “What is the thing people MUST know about the Bible, someone wrote, “That is comes in Brown leather as well!” We have to keep our sense of humor. Thanks Jon!

            I also sent an email out to some of the brightest pastors in our conference asking them the same question. I got back some great answers. One of the overriding themes that kept coming up was that the Bible is a story of God’s relationship to us.

            Here is a little secret: the Bible isn’t a book. It’s a library. I believe the Bible is a collection of stories within 66 books that tell us two things: how to love God and how to love each other. Regardless of whether we are reading the prodigal son or the woman at the well…the story of Cain and Able or the way our first churches were formed, we are being told how to…and how not to…treat people and God.

The question often comes up about whether what happened in the Bible is actually true. Did these events occur the way they talk about them here? Do we even know FOR SURE who wrote what is in this great book? The piece of the letter we read from today is attributed to Paul but many mainline scholars agree that even though it was signed as a letter from Paul, it probably wasn’t actually written by him, which wasn’t an unusual practice in those days.

At this point we have to ask ourselves, “does that bother me?” It is what one of my Bible teachers asked me back when I would question EVERYTHING. He would say to me, “Jerry, why is that important to you?” Not accusing, but really asking the question, why IS that important to me? Does the factuality of a story affect the truth or lesson that story is trying to teach us? This is why I love the line that Marcus Borg uses regarding the “truth” of the Bible. He says, “The Bible is true…and some of it actually happened.” The truth that is being taught is bigger than whether those events happened, at those times, with those people, exactly as it is written.

You know today, people call something Myth when they want to say it isn’t true. That isn’t what myth use to mean. Myths were stories that conveyed universal truths. Myth is much bigger than fact, not less than. The question to ask is, What is the lesson here? What do we believe is trying to be conveyed here? Do we see ourselves in that story anywhere? We should.  As one Facebook response said, that’s what makes the stories relevant.

            When we can see ourselves in these stories, THAT is what makes them ring true. These are stories of pain and heartache, stories of beating impossible odds and stories of explosive joy. They are stories of betrayal and revenge, and stories of love and unspeakable compassion. They are stories of people in the Bible. They are their stories for sure…but they are our stories as well. Who hasn’t felt betrayed? Who hasn’t felt heartache and pain? Who hasn’t felt joy and seen compassion? This is what makes these stories relevant…and what makes them ours.

            It’s almost like Apple’s, “There’s an app for that,” commercials. But instead of apps, they are stories. Ever been betrayed? There’s a story for that. Ever been treated unfairly? There’s a story for that. Ever been a part of a love that seems so big you can’t contain it? There’s a story for that. Ever been forgiven or forgiven someone else? There’s a story for that. Ever watched someone sacrifice for their kids (and pay for it) because they love their kids so, so much? There is a HUGE story for that. It is when we find ourselves in the stories that they come alive.

            So what are our take aways?

• This book is not just History….it is our story as well.
• Just because it is not a fact, doesn’t mean it’s not true.
• There is no original. It has constantly been changing shape.
• It is MANY stories over many times and places with many viewpoints and many authors.
• It tells us how to treat and love God and how to treat and love others…and ourselves.

Don’t be scared of the Bible. Pick it up and browse through it. Get comfortable with it. It doesn’t make you a Jesus Freak or a Holy Roller to start digging into it… and to be comfortable knowing that you will find just as many questions as you will answers.

But don’t let that stop you.

Happy Reading.      

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Love and God

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Deuteronomy 6:4–9

⁴Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. ⁵You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. ⁶Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. ⁷Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. ⁸Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, ⁹and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

In the many previous weeks we have talked about anger, sorrow, and regret. It is time we, as Marianne Williamson would say, return to love.

I will cover four topics: GOD, JESUS, THE BIBLE and US. I will talk about what I think are the most important things to know about each given topic. I hope you’ll join us.

This week….GOD.

The passage Elizabeth read is part of what is called the Shema. The Shema is an affirmation of Judaism and a declaration of faith in one God. It is to be prayed every morning and night. It also has two other sections, another from Deuteronomy (11:13-21) and a part of Numbers (15:37-41). That prayer is inside this tube, as it says in the passage, and is to be put on your gates and doorpost. This is one from my house that I got in Israel. It is a prayer about knowing God and loving God.

I want to talk about God from three angles: how we understand God, God’s unconditional love, and the many paths to God.

The God of Our understanding

(NO ONE gets God completely. If you do…it’s not God.

“Oh God of our many understandings,” that is how Bishop Gene Robinson began his prayer at Barrack Obama’s Inaugural event. Bishop Gene Robinson is the first openly gay priest to be elected Bishop in the Anglican Church. I am currently reading his autobiography, In the Eye of the Storm. I love the fact in that opening prayer, that he extends a welcome to both those who think they have God figured out as well as those who might have not nearly so much confidence.

One of the things I like about what little I know about the AA, 12 step communities is the lack of arrogance surrounding their discussion of God. The third step says to, “make a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand him (her).” What I find particularly refreshing about this is….isn’t that what we are all supposed to do when we choose to follow God? I just find it hysterical that a “non-church” seems to get this better than many of us in church congregations all over the world.

I think we need to release arrogance and find more kindness. Plato said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” We never know what brings people to a place in time. And, as we acknowledged earlier, NO ONE completely understands God and if they do…what they know is not God.

Rudolf Otto coined a phrase called Mysterium tremendum. It means “fearful and fascinating mystery.” It is a Latin phrase which Rudolf Otto uses in, The Idea of the Holy, to name the awe-some (fascinating and full of awe) mystery that was the object common to all forms of religious experience. Otto referred to God as the Wholly Other. That’s not Holy other like in holy water. It is wholly as in completely beyond our understanding. Otto made an entire career of explaining that you can’t explain God.

Jesus essentially says that only four words are important, Love God/Love People. As a result, we realize it is not our job, or the job of the church, to tell people what is “right” and what is “wrong” with their understanding of God. We can tell them OUR understanding. We can explain why we think that way. But I struggle with telling people they are wrong and I am right. God can reach people in ways that I will never be able to comprehend.

So what is our job? Our job is to love each other. We know that Jesus told us that as we treat the least of these, you do unto me. In the Christian faith, we understand Jesus and the Father to be one. When we put all this together, we realize that the way to love God is to love “the least of these.” The Dalai Lama once said, “My religion is kindness.” I think Jesus would approve of that understanding of how we are to be with each other.

The many ways to God (many paths)

I actually left the church in my 20’s because I thought there was only one way to do God. I grew up Catholic, and while I never remember a clear cut conversation regarding, “their way was the only way,” it was implied. There was a thought that “It’s our way or don’t let the door hit you.”….and I didn’t. I did not come back for 10 years. I think it is the arrogance of the Church that tells people, “we have the ONLY way.”  That has driven more people away from God than any other single thing and it kept me out for years. When I found out there was more than one way to “do God,” I was so angry that I lost all those years and that no one told me. I realize now that it was the driving force behind my wanting to become ordained.

Not only are there many paths, each person is on a different place on their path. One of the hardest things to do as a pastor is try to see where people are on their path and to give them just enough encouragement to take that next step. This is going to be very different depending on where they are. With many understandings, there are going to be many folks at different places along their path. We need to honor people and their paths and where they are on it. Regardless of WHAT path they are on and WHERE they are on that path, our job continues to be, for all of us, to love them.

God’s unconditional love

I guess the take away I have regarding God’s love is that it is so easy to take. It is this ease that makes it hard. I don’t think we believe it….but here it is: There is NOTHING we can do to make God love us more. No amount of Bible reading. No amount of volunteer work. No amount of going to church. Nothing you do can make God love you even one iota more. In a world that is constantly asking what have you done for me lately; we have a God that tells us we don’t have to do a thing to earn our creators love. It is amazing to me that our God love saints and sinners alike: Mother Teresa and Lindsey Lohan, Billy Graham and Heather Graham, Rick Warren and Carrot Top.

Here also is the flip side of the equation. There is nothing you can do to make God love you LESS. When we are handing out communion down in the park or when I talk to people in bars, one of the saddest things I hear is that people don’t feel they are WORTHY of communion or of going to church. What they don’t know is that God loves them no less than the Pope, Joel Osteen or Gandhi. God love’s the bartender and the priest the same, and the junkie and the University president, the inmate and the judge. He loves the barfly and the homeless and the reverend and the homemaker, all the same. Of course God doesn’t want to see any of us in pain and many times the things we do cause us pain. God can be sad in some of our choices and circumstances…but God’s love for us will never waiver.  In God’s eyes….through unconditional love’s eyes….all are equal.  

I think the reason we struggle with this is because, for so many of us, there is such a level of dislike of ourselves. Some call it self-loathing. That always sounds so harsh to me. But I do believe most of us have something about ourselves that we are less than pleased with. As a result, many times we try to hide that part of ourselves, our shadow side. We hide it because, not only are we ashamed of that piece of us, but we also think if people saw or knew this part of us they would run for the hills. Yet we know God sees our whole self and then, and here is the wrinkle, think God couldn’t possibly love us with that kind of 360 view of who we are. I think that WE think that we have to be perfect before God. The amazing part is that God loves us…warts and all. No matter what your “problem is,” God loves you absolutely and fully. This Amazing Grace is what makes God so unbelievable for us.

 

Sunday, January 23, 2011

I’m Angry, Where’s the Justice?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: Psalm 13

¹How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? ²How long must I bear pain in my soul, and have sorrow in my heart all day long? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? ³Consider and answer me, O Lord my God! Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death, ⁴and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”; my foes will rejoice because I am shaken. ⁵But I trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. ⁶I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.

That’s it. That’s the whole chapter. In six verses we went from “Will you forget me forever?” to “I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me.”  Psalm 13 is the shortest and simplest prayer for help. It is often cited by scholars as a textbook example of a complaint.

According to one commentary on this passage, the NIV version is preferable when looking at verse 2. It says, “How long must I wrestle with my thoughts.” As opposed to, “How long must I bear pain in my soul?” It points out the writers inter struggle.

            Although this Psalm is short, this Psalm is a great teacher regarding prayer. Prayer involves, not only the nice sweet sound of praise, but also things we don’t often talk about: anger, defeat, inner pain, anxiety and feeling abandon.

            But it is simple: two verses of complaint, two verses of request, and two verses of trust and praise.

            Wouldn’t it be great if life was like that? Wouldn’t it be great if you could go from screaming “WHY ME GOD!?!?!?” to “GOD YOU ARE AWESOME!” that fast?

            More often we feel like Psalm 88.

¹O Lord, God of my salvation, when, at night, I cry out in your presence, ²let my prayer come before you; incline your ear to my cry.³For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol. ⁴I am counted among those who go down to the Pit; I am like those who have no help, ⁵like those forsaken among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave, like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. ⁶You have put me in the depths of the Pit, in the regions dark and deep. ⁷Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah ⁸You have caused my companions to shun me; you have made me a thing of horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape; ⁹my eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call on you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you. ¹⁰Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah ¹¹Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? ¹²Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? ¹³But I, O Lord, cry out to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you. ¹⁴O Lord, why do you cast me off? Why do you hide your face from me? ¹⁵Wretched and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.¹⁶Your wrath has swept over me; your dread assaults destroy me. ¹⁷They surround me like a flood all day long; from all sides they close in on me. ¹⁸You have caused friend and neighbor to shun me; my companions are in darkness.

            And…..that’s the end. No happy ending. Did you hear the difference? Psalm 88 is unique among the Psalms because of one thing: it is the only Psalm of the 150 that doesn’t end in happy, happy. Every other Psalm has this upturn at the end. Psalm 88 sits in that sorrow.

            I wanted to focus on both of these because they represent the fact that we all progress at a different rate of healing. By now St. Andrew knows about AfterHours being discontinued. Even with only one week advanced noticed, you are in a different place than a lot of people that found out only six hours ago. To be completely honest, some of you have already moved on. You think, “Yea, it sucks but life goes on.” You are at acceptance.

Others of you are in that place of grief that is bargaining, “Well can we do it this way, or what about this way?” Bargaining is a different stage of grief. Some of you are at anger. Who is at the anger stage? The “Will you forget me forever!” from Psalm 13 and THE MESSAGE version of the Bible says Psalm 88 this way, “Why God do you turn a deaf ear?” That is the way it feels sometimes doesn’t it? Like we beg and pray and beg and pray and nothing seems to change.

            What these verses tell me is that no matter where you are…God will be able to deal with it. God can handle your pain. God can handle your anger. God can handle your bitterness. And God will rejoice in your praise. No matter HOW YOU FEEL….give it to God.

            A lot of us want to do that but there are a couple of reasons I think, that we don’t. The first reason is that, honestly, we’re scared. We are scared that there will be a huge lightning bolt that is going to strike us down if we raise our voices to God. Maybe not literally, but there is a little fear there that if we get mad at God…God will get mad at us and CUT US OFF. We are afraid God is going to say, “you are dead to me!”  I am here to tell you, that ain’t gonna happen.

            The second reason is that we don’t want to look like anything other than “feelin’ great” in church. I read the other day that the real religions of America are optimism and denial. We feel we have to wear a smiley face a church. Our dark side or shadow side is a side we don’t often want to deal with, especially at church…around all these happy people…at least on the outside. What will they think of us?

            We CAN express our dark and even angry side with God. I would even suggest that you write a letter to God. Tell God about your pain, your disappointment, your anger. For some of you this might be about the discontinuation of AfterHours but for others, you have far worse pain like job, relationship, or money issues. Whatever it is, write a letter to God stating your case.

            While for some of you this might feel silly, the point is, you can’t keep your feelings stuck inside. You have to tell God know how you feel.

            If anger is a prevalent feeling, it is probably coming from a place where you feel like you have been dealt an injustice. It is feeling like you have been dealt a dirty blow. How do we react to injustice? How should we?

            We see in books like Isaiah that God is a fan of justice. It says in Isaiah 61:8, “For I the LORD love justice.” This is not the only place. We see it in Psalm 33:5. “The Lord loves righteousness and justice.” And in Psalm 11:7, “For the Lord is righteous, he loves justice.”

            We are not usually given permission to be angry at God…for anything. I am going to give you that permission now. I want you to write on a piece of paper in front of you something that you are angry about. It can be anything, the AfterHours thing, or something personal. It can be a world issue and more than one. I want to take a few minutes right now and have you write down your anger at God.

            Know that the God we have is big enough to handle all our emotions and loves us now...and always, no matter where we are.

Sunday, January 02, 2011

Disappointment - What Now?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Luke 24:13 – 17

¹³Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, ¹⁴and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. ¹⁵While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, ¹⁶but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. ¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad.

Well…now what? That is the question that is in my mind. I think it is the right question to ask. So often when we are faced with disappointment, we find ourselves asking, “Why God?” when maybe the real question should be, “What now God?” It isn’t like disappointment is something any of us are unfamiliar with. It could be any number of things. Why did that relationship fall apart? Why am I in a dead end job? Why am I not married? Why can’t we have a baby? Why did they cancel AfterHours? Our first reaction is almost always, “Why?”  I think this is normal. I also think it is normal to get angry. The question becomes how long do we stay in that anger AND is there a constructive place to direct it?

            I think the place to direct it is to the question, “What now God?” It is here we can go into a moving forward role rather than the angry, bitter, resentful victim role. Do not let anyone at anytime make you feel like a victim.

            Understand there will be different rates of moving through this and other disappointments. AfterHours is a pretty great thing and definitely a different model for doing church. To be honest I think it is a model that a lot of people don’t understand. It is not the traditional model of attractional church. It is a Missional model of church. Both of these models work but they have very different measurements and timelines. I know more than ever, that we are on the right track with AfterHours and the work we have done. I completely believe it is the model of church for the future. I think we just might have been an issue of wrong place, wrong timing. But that does NOT mean great things haven’t happened. I want to thank Harvey and the church for allowing us to conduct this experiment for two years. Many churches would not have been even this adventuresome. I do think we just didn’t live up to the expectation some had hoped for in the timeline given.

            I also have great hope for the future. I want to allow people to grieve AfterHours. I have known for weeks and am still grieving and asking a lot of questions and have some pain but I will tell you, even though Afterhours is gone, but not for another three months, the WORK of Afterhours will continue.

            The Outreach in the Park has been such a blessing for all involved and that work will continue. We have reached out and touched people more than 9,000 times with food, water, clothes and communion over the past two years. We have given out 100’s of sleeping bags with the help of other churches and we have made Christmas amazing for so many people, both those receiving AND those giving. And this work of ours, this living out of Matthew 25 will live on.

            This is the challenge for all of us as we face disappointment. We have to find a way, rather than focus on what is behind us and beat ourselves up over the past, to instead look to the future and ask God to direct us in the way God wants us to go. Whether it is relationships, a diet gone horribly wrong, a dead end job or no job. We must in our darkest hours turn to God and ask the question, “What now God?”

            I am sure after Jesus was hanging on the cross, the disciples had to feel disappointment. They had to feel like “Why?” They had to feel like all they had dedicated to this new way was lost. We see some of their disappointment in the verse we read today.

            Now to be clear…I am NOT looking at you all as disciples and I have NO plans of hanging on a cross, although EVERY pastor has a Messiah complex…they give it to us when we get ordained. The point I am making is that even though the form of what the disciples were doing changed drastically, the work they were doing of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing people of their pain, didn’t change. That work continued all the way up to and including the work we are doing with our ministry. We are doing something different, to be sure, but in another way, the work we are doing at Afterhours is a continuation of the work Jesus did with his team of 12. Afterhours is small, but we are bigger than 12!

            Know that wherever you are in your life now, if it is something that is not working or not where you want it to be, it is NOT the end of your story. I touched on this Christmas Eve. YOUR STORY ISN’T FINISHED! MY STORY ISN’T FINISHED. The AFTERHOURS STORY ISN’T FINISHED. WHAT’S NEXT GOD?

            I wanted to allow for some time for you all to chime in with your thoughts. As you are comfortable to share, what are your thoughts? What are your concerns? Where are you thinking we should go next? I know we just dropped this bomb on you and for some of you it’s going to be, “wow, that sucks….where do you want to grab dinner?” For others of you, you might feel betrayed, angry or just hurt. This is true of any group of people that have heard bad news. Writer and Pastor Hamilton Smith writes about the followers of Jesus and makes these comments. “How varied the conditions of the soul in which the disciples were found on resurrection morning. Peter was a backslider, Thomas a doubter, Mary Magdalene was desolate, and the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, were disappointed.” God is there for any of us wherever we are, bitter, angry, upset, or disappointed, God can handle it.

Regarding AfterHours; allow time to grieve this. It won’t be that big a deal to some, but for others…this might take awhile to recover from this news and to figure out a new chapter.

            I do want to say, how amazing it has been to be a part of this with you. I especially want to thank my wife Laura who has been with this from the very, very, VERY beginning. As a matter of fact, she is the only one who has been here from BEFORE the first service until now. I also want to thank Ken and Aaron, our two paid staff who have been absolutely awesome.

            The heart of AfterHours has been all of you who have donated countless hours of your time to the work of being the hands and feet and bank accounts (!) of Christ. You have built God’s kingdom and I am certain God is smiling down on the work we have done together.

            Know that we still have 90 days of services. We have at least two more service Sunday where we can go out and live God’s message of love and grace for all and we have some killer guest preachers coming in throughout the next three months.

            God is with us and this is not the end and we WILL continue to build the kingdom of God.

            I want to open this time up to comments and questions to either myself or Larry or Angela.

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Not Always What It Seems

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Luke 2:1 – 20

¹In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. ²This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. ³All went to their own towns to be registered. ⁴Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. ⁵He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. ⁶While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. ⁷And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

⁸In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹²This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, ¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” ¹⁵When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Before I get too far in with the preaching portion of our program I want to give a shout out to any people who find themselves here against their will. I’m glad you’re here. Now I know you aren’t here completely against your will – no one held a gun to your head. But maybe a few of you got the “the only gift I want for Christmas this year is for you to come to church with me. If you fall into that category…thanks for being here.

You’re doing a nice thing. I also want you to know that I was you for a lot of years so…if you keep this up, you just might find yourself in seminary in 10-12 years. I hope you will find something to dig in this service.

So here we are again. Not even an hour left. In less than an hour we will be wishing each other a Merry Christmas…and in just over 24 hours, Christmas will have come and gone. Is it going to live up to what we hope for? Are we going to get the gifts we hoped for? Are we going to feel the magic of Christmas? I heard someone say that a few years ago they did not feel Christmas till they heard the Christmas Eve sermon. Wow. Pressure.

            I think sometimes we want and look so hard for something that we sometimes miss it when it’s right in front of our eyes. I think this is what the Angel wanted to avoid. “This will be a sign for you; you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” Remember this angel is announcing a savior, a messiah, the Lord. Do you think the shepherds were envisioning a warrior in a chariot or a king on a throne? I really think that is why the angel tagged it with, “this will be a sign for you.”  “Look for the sign…if you don’t you will screw this up for sure.” The Angel probably thought, “Left to their own devises, they’ll miss it for sure.” And of course this messiah looked NOTHING like what the shepherds expected. In fact, the savior looked completely different.

            I think this happens to us all the time. We think we know what to look for. We think we “know” what the solution is. We think we know what will make us happy. This might be true sometimes, but when we are dealing with things of God (and by the way, what things aren’t the things of God?)…when we are dealing with the things of God, be ready to be surprised. God flips everything around. This Messiah, this Savior….this…LORD…on this night, couldn’t even speak, let alone give orders. Couldn’t even walk let alone march into battle. Couldn’t even make a fist, let alone fight. And yet, on this night… the one who was going to rule the universe was born.

            We have heard over and over again the low shall become high and the high brought to their knees. The first shall be last and the last shall be first. The meek shall inherit the earth. And yet…yet so often we find occasions when it seems like the bad guy wins. The office jerk gets promoted when you or someone you love gets laid off. The blowhards get the bonus and the good guys are the ones staying late at work. This has been a year when too many good people have lost their jobs and maybe you’re one of them. We want to believe in this message of hope that is supposed to be revealed this night. But honestly, sometimes it’s just hard.

            Maybe, maybe part of the reason it’s hard is that, like the shepherds, we are looking for the wrong things. We are looking for a “big-dramatic-God-bursting-in” kind of moment. I think God sneaks in and I think it happens every day.  I think when we are in a situation; things are not always what they seem.

            I think if we are to be the hands and feet of Christ, (and I think we are) that must mean Christ in our day to day life must look like you and me, not some guy in a robe and sandals. What this means is we better be ready to suspend judgment when Jesus comes waltzing through our lives.

            Here are a few examples of when I was expecting a warrior and got a babe in swaddling clothes.

            My mom passed away a number of years ago. My sister was truly her angel during her final days but there were others. I had a family member that would come over and wash and style my mom’s hair when she was too weak to do that herself. This family member would take the time to wash and dry and style and dye mom’s hair to just the way Peggy would like it. It was easy for anyone who heard this story to see that this family member was being the hands and feet of Christ. It can be more challenging when I tell people that the family member that took such good care of my mom was a stripper. This adult dancer acted in such a caring and loving way that it was easy to forget that she maybe didn’t have a job that was viewed in the highest regard. Things are not always what they seem.

            Many of you know I spend a couple of hours a week handing out food and water and socks in Civic Center Park. This is the AfterHours understanding of when I was hungry and thirsty and naked revision. We will always have the same 3-6 of us helping every week but there are others who rotate in and out.

One of the guys who helps will always meet me right at the car and grab a case of water, or a bag of lunches or whatever we need help with. He’s always there with a smile, lending a hand. This again is the hands and feet of Christ. The thing is he’s not from Afterhours. He’s not even from St. Andrew. He is one of the homeless who lives down on the streets around Civic Center Park.

Another guy that helps out when he can is one of the biggest drug dealers in the park. Now I am not condoning being homeless or a stripper or a drug dealer. What I am saying is that God has always used the lowly to surprise those in power. God has always used those on the margins to show those of us closer to the center that things are not always what they seem.

            You might not feel like you have a job that has much of an impact. You might feel like there are so many others who are more “important” than you but never ever confuse your work on earth with the job you have to make a dime.

I got a text this past week from one of the regulars who comes down to the park to help out. He is getting a lot of his friends asking him about where they should donate their time and clothes. I asked him how it felt to become known as the “go to” guy for matters that have to do with the homeless. He texted me back this: “you know, it’s funny, I was just talking about that the other day. My life is more defined by the last year and a half going to the park for an hour than by the entire previous 36 years.” That’s what happens when you open yourself up to being the hands and feet of Christ. You find yourself.

            I think it is no accident that the first words spoken in this passage that aren’t those of the narrator are the four words the angel starts off with…DO NOT BE AFRAID.

These are some scary times and when we step out and be the hands and feet of Christ out in the world, it might feel a little bit odd at first. The people and situations you find yourself in might not always be what they seem or what you are use to.

DO NOT BE AFRAID.

On this night and from every night forward God is with us. Hope WILL win. The story is not over. YOUR story is not over. Even when a situation looks lousy, when it looks like the bad guy is winning, when it feels like you have tried your best and it still isn’t good enough, DO NOT FEAR. Things are not always what they seem.

God Bless and Merry Christmas.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Oh Baby!

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Matthew 1:8 – 25

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. ²⁰But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” ²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

What do we think of when we hear the word “righteous?” Do you think of someone who is always doing the right thing? Or do you think of it as a negative? “Well, you don’t have to get all righteous on me.” And we don’t only have to decide if it’s a positive or a negative; we have to decide what the word right really means. The real question is what is right? Who gets to decide what is right?

In this passage we read, her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. Righteousness was easy to define in Joseph’s day. Righteous people in Joseph’s day strictly adhered to the law. Period. By being engaged, Joseph and Mary were already considered legally married so unfaithfulness would have been adultery and Joseph would have been justified to divorce her, even have her put to death.  What is a “righteous” man to do? Does he follow the letter of the law or rather side with grace? Joseph chooses to act out of care for Mary rather than strictly adhere to the law.

            Haven’t we all, in one way or another, found ourselves in similar situations? It may not have been as dramatic, but none the less, similar. We have to decide if we are going to live out the heart of the law or the letter of the law. We are trying to decide what’s…right.

            It’s not like Joseph doesn’t know the law. This is like a Sermon on the Mount moment; he is dealing with the “you-have-heard-it-said…but-I-say-to-you,” sort of thing. Does he go with what he has been taught his whole life or what he feels is the loving thing to do? This is the dilemma facing the people of Matthew’s church. They were Jewish Christians who always obeyed the law and suddenly, there is a newer, kinder, more grace filled moment presented to them. Do we do what we understand the strict letter of the law to be, or do we follow this new, higher understanding of righteousness to which Jesus leads the people of the Matthew community?

            To the writer of Matthew’s gospel, Joseph represents the perfect disciple of this new understanding. He is always looking for the grace and the love and the forgiveness in a given situation, rather than following “the rules” that have always been set up. This is the new higher consciousness of the kingdom, a new understanding. This is the kind of thinking that Jesus is going to bring into the world when he grows up. Remember, Matthew knows the whole Jesus story when he writes this good book. He is using Joseph to model the new life that people will have in Jesus. Jesus’ dad represents the message of Jesus. Well done Joe!

            When have you found yourself in a similar spot to Joseph? You want to do the right thing but realize it might not be the same as “going by the book.” That is a tough tension in which to live. That is the tension in which the people of Matthew’s church found themselves.

            It is especially hard when the “book” that we are going by is the Bible. Many churches struggle with anyone, ANYONE questioning their thoughts, ideas and practices. I pray we are always open to debate and discussion here at AfterHours. The job of those on the cutting edge of their faith is to question. There will always be questions that need answers. And what scares many Pastors and churches is that we won’t have the answers. Now, I can help you out there, I’ll cut to the chase for you. We don’t. We might have more education on matters of religion, though not always, but we are pilgrims struggling along the same path that you are.

            Do we have the courage to stand up against the company line when we don’t think its representing the law that Jesus put in front of us? The law to love, the desire for grace or the need for forgiveness. We can find justification for just about ANYTHING in the Bible. There are all kinds of things that were justified in a certain time and place. Does that mean they are right for today and this time and place? Should we stone people? Should we shun people from our community of faith? Should we exclude people for living a less than perfect life?

My own life is challenge enough. I have to deal with eating and spending and not exercising enough, with wasting too much time and not praying enough. Not forgiving enough and judging too much. Can anyone say they have it all together? Then how can we possibly point a finger at another?

            I truly believe that Joseph was hurt when he found out that Mary was pregnant. How could he not have been? And the excuse wasn’t that helpful either! It definitely qualified as “well, that’s a new one! God made you pregnant…well I’ll be.” You didn’t hear that excuse every day. Make no mistake, it wasn’t an easy decision that Joseph had to make. Yet he was righteous. Not only did he not STONE her….he didn’t even want to embarrass her. He knew what would happen to her in the community. Nazareth was a small town, no more than 150-200 people. If you grew up in a small town you know that everybody knows EVERYBODY’s business. It was the same way in Nazareth. She would have been shamed. She would have been considered damaged goods. No man would have any relations with her. She couldn’t work. She would have been persona non grata. It would have been a living death sentence.

            As we know from the story, Joseph didn’t need to follow through with the “quiet” divorce. The angel intervened. Here is some advice, WHENEVER you can have an angel intervene, do so.

            I want to dive a little deeper into Joseph’s role, but first I want to tell you a little bit about my and Laura’s exciting days in Hollywood. How’s that for a segue?

            When Laura and I lived in Hollywood we both started as soon as we got there doing extra work. Extras are the people who help set the environment for a scene. They are like living props. They are not to speak. They are only there to been seen and not heard. The next step up from being an extra is getting a part as an “under five.” They are people who have under five lines. That’s a big deal. Under fives are usually the folks you see saying things like, There’s a phone call for you doctor and your table is ready, right this way. Laura and I both did a lot of extra work on different shows. Ask her about The Adventures of Brisco County Jr.  The show that we both worked on the most was Days of Our Lives. Definitely in the part of seen and not heard. Extras are the low man on the Hollywood totem pole.

            We have some correlations with our Bible passage today. Both Hollywood and the Bible are big on roles and the parts we play.

            Once again, in our story, God turns the values of the world upside down. The entire Christmas story is a story of questioning our assumptions. As I mentioned, we have an angel intervene. In fact, the angel is the only one in this passage with a speaking part. Not a “star” but not an under five either! Joseph and Mary don’t say a word in this passage. As a matter of fact, in all the scriptures, not a single word is recorded coming from Joseph. I get the sense that Joseph was the strong silent type. He was a carpenter, a blue collar guy.

Regarding this miracle between God and Mary, it is obviously a big deal. As a matter of fact, it is the first miracle of the New Testament and a pretty important piece of the story. And yet, our leads; Mary and Joseph don’t have a single line. The extras in our world are the stars of the Christmas story. This is just the first time we see this happen. We will see it again with the Shepherd’s, and with the location of the Jesus birth.

God takes what we deem lowly and makes it the shining star of the story. We have to always remember that the things that this world places in importance God often does not, and conversely, God will take the lowly of this world and raise them up and hold them in high praise.

In many ways, Joseph is often viewed as almost an extra in this story. And yet, had he divorced Mary, which by law, he had every right to do, we would have a very different story. If this “righteous” man had adhered to the letter of the law, he could have, in the process, killed both Mary and the baby in her womb! Let’s hear it for those who go against the status quo! Get this: If Joseph had followed the letter of the law, Jesus would never have brought us the good news that we don’t have to always follow the letter of the law! Where do you suppose Jesus learned that? Like father like son!

            There is always going to be a need for rules and regulations. They are important to keep our society running smoothly. The danger becomes, to paraphrase Jesus, “are the laws made for man or man for the laws?” Let us always question what writer and Pastor Phil Gulley calls, “the spiritual status quo.” I will say more about that next week at 11:00 pm on Christmas Eve at St. Andrew.  Get ready…we are getting close to one of the most amazing things to ever happen in the history of our faith. We are about to watch Jesus turn the world upside down.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

How to Have Patience…Right Now!

By Rev. Jerry Herships

James 5:7 – 11

⁷Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. ⁸You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. ⁹Beloved, do not grumble against one another, so that you may not be judged. See, the Judge is standing at the doors! ¹⁰As an example of suffering and patience, beloved, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. ¹¹Indeed we call blessed those who showed endurance. You have heard of the endurance of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

OK….I cheated. This is one of the lectionary passages…plus I added verse 11. It seemed weird without it. So sue me.      I think it is pretty easy to see what the major theme is for this passage. The first two words make it pretty clear. Be patient.

            I don’t think I have ever preached on patience. Part of the reason, I am sure, is…well I suck at it. Like most Americans, I find myself wanting something and wanting it…well NOW, actually, yesterday. Long term patience does not come easy to me. That is part of the reason I never thought I would make through the ordination process. I am Definitely an outcome person, NOT a process person. If you have to stay up all night every night to get the sermon done…so be it. Stop complaining and start working. If on the other hand you get it done in a day, then the night is yours, enjoy. In the end, it is about the final product not the process.

            This is not always the best route. Part of today’s passage tells us that the farmer is waiting for both the early and the late rain. Some things just take time, God’s time.

No one in my family is of the patient type. Waiting for Christmas to come? Forget it. It was so hard for us to wait in our family that we started doing CHRISTMAS EVE GIFT. Do any of you play this game? Is ours the only family?

            Christmas Eve Gift came about because apparently as my brother and sister were growing up they were even less patient that I was. The idea was that on Christmas Eve, whoever shouted “Christmas Eve gift” the loudest got to open ONE of their presents a day early, on Christmas Eve. You had one less on Christmas day but you got to open ONE early.

            My brother and sister didn’t stop playing when they moved out. They would sometimes call at 6 in the morning….then 5….then the night before at midnight to be the first one. I did have the advantage of still being at home. I would shout “Christmas Eve Gift!” as soon as I heard the phone ring…Again, outcome oriented.

            This passage is telling us that maybe, maybe there might be something to gain by showing a little patience.

            It tells us that this is the season that we have to focus on Peace. If we follow the advice of this passage we will get through this holiday season with more peace, which is what the Prince is bringing us when he arrives. Now this peace is spelled a little funny. We are going to spell it PES and it is going to stand for the three things that we see throughout this passage.

            The passage focuses on three main themes: be Patient, Endure, and Strengthen your heart. Let’s look closer at each one.

 

PATIENCE

            We all have to have patience in different areas of our lives. To continue on with the idea of my writing sermons, I have to be dedicated to the process and discipline of writing but also stay open to allow ideas (and some would call the Holy Spirit) to flow in and out of the sermon writing process. As I write these words, I have no idea how this manuscript will end. That is many versions and edits from now. I love what I read in Deepak Chopra’s book, Why is God Laughing.

He tells the story of the time when a Broadway composer was asked how he came up with his wonderful tunes. His reply was: “Wait, Drift, Obey.” Love that. What is at the core of that is you have to be patient.

            It reminds me of that often quoted phrase, “release outcome.” It is focusing on the here and now and not spending too much time focusing on the future. I believe patience must be practiced and I now believe I am better at it now than I was five years ago. The process of ordination forced my hand. There are moments when the only requirement IS to wait. You must be at a church for a year. You must be a provisional candidate for two years, You must have a three year degree. Waiting is a huge part of the process. The process itself teaches patience.

            Where in your life could you use more patience? Where do you find yourself thinking, “Enough God, Let’s get on with it!” In what part of your life do you feel stuck? This section in James is titled “patience in suffering.” Who in the world wants that? For me I am always trying to find the lessons in any given moment, and to be honest, there are times I just don’t see any lessons learned. This does not mean I stop looking. I stay on the path. I keep taking life one day at a time. Which leads us to our next major point, endure.

 

ENDURANCE

            Endurance is not a game for the timid. It says, “I can see where life stands now. It might not be that great at this moment, but let’s wait and see what things look like at the end. It is recognizing that God might be putting a comma where you, at first, put a period. That is one of the great things about reading the Bible. We know how it turns out. We can flip to the back of the book. We don’t have that luxury in our life, so we must endure, knowing that God has a great plan for us. It is like we read in Jeremiah. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

It might not feel like it right at this moment. You might feel rejected or in pain or lost and not knowing where to turn next. KNOW that this is not God’s plan for your life. I know of NO ONE who gets out of this life without some struggle. I know of no one who has gotten through this life without some degree of pain. We were never promised a pain free life. The good news is, IT WON’T LAST. You can endure. You can beat the hard times, get through this part. Endure, have patience. God has a very bright future for you. Use this time to do the last thing this passage tells us to do…strengthen your heart.

 

STRENGTHEN OUR HEARTS

            How do we do this? How do we strengthen our hearts?  I can tell you how we don’t do it. It’s not about getting on the treadmill. It’s not about running a marathon. We do strengthen our heart by using it and making it stronger, but we do it in a different way. We find ways to love more. We find ways to give more. We find ways to care for each other more.

            I have found that when I am busy strengthening my heart in one of these ways, my patience increases. It increases because I’m not staring at the clock. I am too busy DOING. Time flies when you serve others. I find that my attention shifts off of me and mine, to theirs and them. I become less selfish when I am strengthening my heart by serving people besides myself.

            It is also easier to endure the hard times when I strengthen my heart because it often puts my life and problems in perspective.  Here is an example. Every Tuesday at St. Andrew we have a staff meeting. It is exactly as fun as it sounds. It usually last between one to two hours. When it’s done, there is meeting overload. It is easy to get into a grumble and complain mode.

            I leave right from there and go down to hand out lunches and communion in the park. That hour in the park reminds me of how silly so many of my problems are and it reminds me what REAL problems look like. Enduring MY problems becomes a lot easier.

            Now don’t get me wrong, I know there are REAL problems that people have that an hour of handing out water won’t cure. I totally get that. I guess all I’m trying to say is, when we go beyond ourselves and think of others, our pain becomes reduced.

            This advent season, let’s all do our best to go outside ourselves and find a way to strengthen our hearts as we prepare for the coming of Jesus. When we do this we will find our patience increasing, as well as our ability to endure. Christmas becomes less about what sales to hit and what presents to buy and more about the message that Jesus coming into the world is supposed to signal: new light, new hope and new ways of doing things in this world. 

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Are You John the Baptist?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Matthew 3:1 – 12

¹In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, ²“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” ³This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, “The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’” ⁴Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist and his food was locusts and wild honey. ⁵Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, ⁶and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

⁷But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ⁸Bear fruit worthy of repentance. ⁹Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. ¹⁰Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ¹¹“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. ¹²His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

I have to be honest. Sometimes I read a Bible passage and just go, “huh.” I know there are some of you out there thinking that Pastors and Preachers have it all figured out. Maybe some others do, but I suspect there are at least a few of them like me. There are easy passages to figure out what the writer was going for, and there are others where I am simply looking and going, “I got nothin’.”

            It is in these moments that seminary training does pay off. Part of seminary isn’t just teaching us how to interpret text, but also where to go and what resources to use to help us interpret text. Half of knowledge is knowing where to go to find that knowledge.

            That was the case here. For the next three weeks, I am going to preach from what is called the lectionary. It is a listing of texts that any preacher in the country can turn to and see what, in theory, all the other pastors are preaching on that week. It gives you an Old Testament verse, a Psalm, a Gospel and one of Paul’s letters to pick from. I went with the Gospel.

            I then turned to one of the commentaries. Commentaries are giant books that scholars write to explain biblical passages in depth. How in depth? Here is the Gospel of Matthew. Here is the commentary explaining the Gospel of Matthew. Sometimes they are no help at all. Sometimes they say very interesting things. For example, the commentary on this passage says that Pharisees and Sadducees, during John’s time, would not have been hanging out together. They were opposing religious parties and pretty unlikely to be working together. Matthew isn’t presenting reality in this instance, but rather showing the opposition to John as a united front, in much the same way there will later be a united front against Jesus.

            While I think that’s cool, in a Bible geek sort of way, it isn’t what I think we should focus on in this passage. I’ll get to that in a minute.

            In the mean time, I am wondering if any of you have ever tried to explain AfterHours to someone who hasn’t been to AfterHours? I’m curious about how you explain it to someone else. After all, not every church’s Call To Worship is slapping together PB&J. We are a bit of a strange duck, although I hope none of you describe us that way.

            I usually say something like, “we are church for people who don’t do church,” but that doesn’t explain it all. I will say we are focused on serving others outside our walls. The fancy church word for this is “Missional.” We are part of a larger church, St. Andrew Church, which, in turn, is part of a larger denomination, The United Methodist Church. The United Methodist Church is part of a larger group called Protestant, which is a sub group of the Christian faith. There. Is that clear as mud?

            I think a simpler way of saying it is that we are trying to live our lives as close to Jesus as we can and we are trying to do the things, and behave in the ways Jesus told us to live.  That cuts through a lot of BS doesn’t it?

            See, I think for a lot of us, there are parts of the wider church community that really rub us the wrong way. I think there are parts of organized religion that really bug me. The good news is that we are in good company because it also bugged John the Baptist and Jesus too! We see value is following God through this master teacher named Jesus. We just sometimes struggle with all the rest of it.

            I definitely feel this way sometimes. I feel like I have one foot in the church world and one in the secular world. I think some of you feel the same way. We want to be associated with something bigger than ourselves, and we want to believe that the thing bigger than us is God, but God’s fan club that we often see out in the world, is not necessarily a club in which we want to belong. Having a foot in both worlds is challenging, but I believe everyone here is in that space. It is nice to be a part of each community, but as a result, you can’t really claim either as your true home. It is like we are bridge people.

            The passage we read today is all about bridge people, John and Jesus. John already had his own thing going when Jesus came on the scene. He had his own followers, his own disciples. But, John was not necessarily a member of “the establishment.” He wore a camels hair get up and ate bugs. Not what corporate America would call, “a suit.” And I think when you call someone a “pack of vipers” you have to know that is not the way to win friends and influence people. John was not going to be getting a key to the executive washroom anytime soon. Yet, he was doing the work of God. No doubt about it.

            Jesus, although he is not in this passage, is still a central character. He too is anti establishment, and as a result, the establishment kills him. But we will save that part of the story for Easter.

            Even when Jesus does come, he doesn’t do it the way we expect. John is expecting this wild, separating the wheat from the chaff, type of event. “You watch, he’s going to put the good guys over here and the bad guys over there.” Yet that’s not how Jesus comes into the world. Why would he start his formal ministry that way? He enters the world as a small, innocent baby, born in a strange land in a manger. Put another way, Jesus was a helpless, homeless immigrant baby, born to an unwed mother. God comes in and, right from the start, blows our mind.

            So John blows our mind and clearly doesn’t fit the mold. Jesus comes in and he doesn’t fit the mold. Are we seeing a pattern? The God of the universe does not do things in the usual way. We get to see God in a new light, the light of the world. 

            Maybe that is what we are to do here with Afterhours and this advent season. We are to own our uniqueness as a community and try to look at Advent with fresh eyes. Advent means to get ready or to prepare. Maybe this passage is telling us that this Advent season, expect the unexpected.

            In this passage we see John bust into the story, out of nowhere. The actual passage begins with a Greek word that both the NRSV and the NIV miss. The Greek word means “now” or “but.” It evokes suddenness. John appears without preparation or warning. There goes God again, bursting into the scene in another unexpected way. Out in the wilderness, John is doing God in a new and surprising way.

            AfterHours is like John the Baptist, doing church in a new and unpredicted way.  This is always going to involve risk. John ended up losing his head over the deal.

            AfterHours is also like John in another way. John is an outsider. He is being a prophet and doing the work of God, but the organized religion of the day doesn’t get him and he doesn’t get them either. He is not outside the faith, but he isn’t hanging around with the Sadducees and Pharisees. As we’ve said, he’s not a company man. He’s not quite “in” and not quite “out.” And yet God is using this “outsider” to make inroads for the Kingdom. It is here in Matthew that we see the openness of accepting others even when they don’t fit inside the nice and tidy box we call “The Church.”

            AfterHours sometimes seems too “churchy” for those people who don’t go to church all the time or are new to it. And we are very often not churchy enough for those who are accustomed to a more traditional understanding of church. But we are hopefully opening people’s eyes to seeing God and church in a different way.

            In a lot of ways, all of us are like John the Baptist. We are all outsiders in one way or another. Everyone has felt that way at least once in their life, that feeling like you don’t fit in. By claiming Afterhours as your church home, you are saying you are comfortable doing God in new and unique ways. You are a little bit counter cultural, like John and Jesus. You have to be bilingual, you have to be able to talk secular AND church. By doing this we all become bridges that help bring people to God.

            This Advent season, let us prepare for Jesus’ arrival by opening our eyes, seeing the season in a different way, seeing the work we do in a different way, and seeing that God is always bursting onto the scene in new and exciting ways.

            Let us be John the Baptist in our corner of the world.

            Are you John the Baptist? Are you sharing the arrival of something great? All I ask is that you do it in your own way. God is going to love how you get the message out there.

Amen.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Just Accept It

By Rev. Jerry Herships

2 Corinthians 12:9

⁹My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness"

Like so many people who create, I run into what artist call writer’s block. Every Tuesday morning I stare at a blank sheet of paper and try to figure out what I think I have to say that might be useful for all of you this week, me included. I also sit and pray and try to listen to what it is that I think God wants us to know this week. I don’t listen for a literal voice. I just try to sit quietly (as quietly as I can) and see where my thoughts take me. Sometimes it is nowhere. Sometimes it is to a song or a book or to absolutely nothing of importance.

This week I kept coming back to an idea and concept that I think God wants us to get and to get deeply. It flies in the face of a lot of churches, even though they may say it doesn’t. It is in many ways the cornerstone of what we believe here at AfterHours and I think it is central to both Methodism and to Christianity as a whole. I would also dare say it is what I would preach about if I was only given one topic to preach on for the rest of my preaching days.

            It’s grace.

            You have heard me speak of grace before and I am starting to realize, that whether we preachers want to admit it or not, we have favorite themes. We have thoughts and concepts that keep coming back to us. For some of us it might be social justice. For others it might be sacrifice or high commitment. For others it might be a sense of awe in the world. I realize that for me, grace seems to be a concept that keeps coming back to me again and again. Now I don’t know if that’s because I need to get it or you need to get it, but either way, it keeps coming back. It is probably because I believe that if you get the idea of grace you are pretty close to getting the whole package. I also think it is something that we desperately need more of in the world.

            It is worthwhile to note that the Greek word used in the Bible for grace is Charis, pronounced khar'-ece, has an interesting definition in one of our church reference books. It says that grace is, "The divine influence upon the heart, and its reflection in the life.” The Greek word charis is related to two other Greek/English words. The first one is charisma, a special spiritual endowment or influence, and the second is character, an engraving, stamp or mark indicating the genuineness of something.

In other words, grace is given by God to develop characteristics in harmony with God's character. This implies that grace is given to us to develop such God like characteristics. Another way of looking at it is that grace is given to enable such character changes to come about. The more we accept God’s grace, the more we give grace to others thereby reflecting God’s character.

            I do the chapel service about every other week at St. Andrew. We take our liturgy, our order of the worship service right out of the hymnal. There is an outline of worship right on page six. One of the best things about that service is that it starts with these words: “May the grace and peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” And the people say, “and also with you.” We sometimes sort of throw away those words or don’t think too deeply about them but I think they are so important and what a wonderful thing to wish for each other. Is there any better gift than THE GRACE AND PEACE OF GOD?

Grace is often defined as undeserved mercy. But I think it is bigger than that. It is mentioned 170 times in the Bible so it must be a big deal. I think of it as an unconditional love that God gives to us and in turn God wants us to give to each other. We are told to love others as God has loved us. We see it in John 13:34 when Jesus tells us to do just that. It says, “…love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” This section ends with Jesus telling us that when we do this, people will know who we are…followers of Jesus Christ.

            I am amazed how hard it is for most people to believe, down to their bones, how much God loves us, me included. I think part of this reason is that so often we try to present our best selves to the world but many times we feel like the world doesn’t always see the real us. I think the thinking behind this is: “if the world saw the real me, they would run in the other direction.” I try to do my best, but none of you see all of me. Laura sees a lot more of me than just about anyone and she can tell you, it isn’t pretty. It isn’t always the well polished version of a preacher you see standing before you now. I have some serious faults. There are parts of me I am less than proud of. If you saw all of me, you wouldn’t be too impressed.

            I think this is probably true for all of us to one degree or another. We all have our public side and our private side. There are parts of us that very few see. We can all be selfish and materialistic and mean and self loathing, not what one would call stellar qualities. No one gets to see ALL of us, except God.

God sees every single part of us even the times we lie and make snide remarks and are catty and self-serving. Here is what is so amazing. God sees ALL sides of us and loves us more than anyone! Everyone else has just seen the good parts and they don’t love us HALF as much! God sees and loves us in all of our imperfections. God knows we aren’t prefect and God still loves us in that imperfection.

            This grace is a cornerstone of Methodist theology. It is NOT the cornerstone of every Christian theology. Maybe you were brought up in a church that focused on God’s wrath and “the fall” and Adam screwing it up for everyone in Genesis Two, instead of the God in Genesis One and God’s affirmation of human’s goodness. Remember after God created humans, God said this isn’t just good. God said this is VERY GOOD.

            I am currently reading, If God is Love, by Quaker Pastor, Phil Gulley. I have mentioned some of his other books before and I think he is a great author. He makes a great statement on page 37 when he says: “When we see ourselves as God sees us, our transformation begins.”

            God does not see us as perfect, but God loves us anyway. Can we learn to see ourselves as less than perfect and love ourselves anyway? We are pretty good with the first half of the equation…we can see ourselves as less than perfect. It’s usually the loving ourselves anyway part that tends to trip us up.

            The Psalmist thinks pretty highly of us. There it says we have been made a little lower that God, and crowned with glory and honor (Psalm 8:5). We could do worse than being just “a little lower than God.”

            The New Testament has some nice things to say about us too. In John Jesus tells us that when we believe in him we will do the works that Jesus does and in fact do GREATER works than these! (John 14:12). While this sounds incredible, haven’t we seen this in our own lives? Haven’t we seen an amazing outpouring of compassion and mercy after earthquakes and floods and hurricanes? Haven’t we seen amazing acts of love and kindness when a church family rallies around a family that has a child in the hospital? Don’t we see it every week when we gather here, not just to pray for the things that we want, but to reach out in a tangible way to help others that many of us will never meet? If we keep our eyes open, we can chose to focus on people doing Jesus’ works day in and day out. We can be amazing.

            When we see ourselves as God sees us, our transformation begins.

            It is easy to beat ourselves up. For some of us we came from a home where this was common place. We went to schools and had teachers that told us we weren’t good enough. We attended churches that reinforced that God was angry with us and don’t do anything to upset God any more. Some religions and Pastors have come right out and told us we are unworthy. They have shoved this divine rejection down our throats. This holy anger of God has been what some of us were raised with. NO WONDER we have a hard time loving ourselves! How do we love something that we’ve been told even GOD is having a hard time loving?

            I am here to tell you that in my book that just isn’t true.

            What is especially great about God’s love is that it is not earned. Can we just relax and accept it? Philip Yancey (I must like authors named Phil!) in his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, states it this way, “There is nothing we can do that will make God love us more. There is nothing we can do that will make God love us less.” No amount of going to church, saying our prayers, and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. No amount of money you donate or thank you cards you write or going to Sunday School. Those things don’t add to God’s love for you because nothing can. God already loves you as much as possible.

            And, by the way, all the lousy stuff you do (you know what it is, I’m not going to spell it out for you) doesn’t take away from God’s love of you. God wants you to be your very best, but that doesn’t mean when you aren’t, God holds back the love.

            GOD’S LOVE DEPENDS ON NOTHING WE DO.

            This is what we hear today in Paul’s message. We are told that God’s grace is sufficient. When we read, “For my power is made perfect in weakness,” God is telling us, stop relying on ourselves so much. It is often out of our weakness that we find ourselves HAVING to rely on God’s grace. Often our weakness forces us to realize that God is in control. We don’t have to “perform” for God. The Beatles told us, Love is all you need. God is telling us here that Grace is all you need! Nothing more or less will win God over or make God turn away.

            So make the sandwiches, and write the thank you cards and come to church and say your prayers. But don’t do it to win God’s favor. That game is already won. Just accept it.

            See yourself as God sees you and watch your transformation begin. May the Grace and Peace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you…Amen.

Sunday, November 07, 2010

What Does the Future Hold?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Luke 17:20 – 21                                    

²⁰Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; ²¹nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”

A lot has happened since the last time I saw all of you. I was asked to preach at the annual Clergy retreat that we have up near Winter Park. I was preaching to preachers…yes it was exactly as fun as it sounds. We had a guest speaker come and talk about Missional Church. Cool stuff that is telling me that we are the future of the church.

I was, also, asked to attend a conference in Seattle last week called the New Church Leadership Institute. We experienced great presenters and speakers. When people heard what we were doing here at Afterhours, they got excited. I was asked to come and speak about AfterHours in Portland in March at an upcoming conference. We are on target gang. We are part of God’s new plan for reforming, rethinking and reimagining the church in the coming years. 

We were focusing on the Missional Church in the last couple of weeks. And I think it is the kind of church that we all want to do. We want to go out into the world. We want to change the world for the better.

Somewhere along the way things got twisted. The Church turned its signs around. I think the Church has an anatomy problem. We started focusing on how to get butts in the seats rather that get feet and hands into the world, and I think God is telling us, in the future, to understand the Kingdom in a very different way.

            Now I am not about to say we have this piece all figured out. There are some people who had this Missional church thing figured out years ago. People who have been going into the world and focusing on meeting people where they are….and not just to give them directions to the church.

            I still believe, though, that we all want to bring the Kingdom down to earth. We all want to see God grab people. I have heard it said that the church in the United States loses 1500 people a week, NEVER TO RETURN. Somewhere we are missing the boat.

            I would love to tell you we’ve done everything right at Afterhours, but the truth is, we have done a lot wrong from a traditional church model. To be completely honest, there is a lot for the first time visitor looking for a church NOT TO like. We have played Pink Floyd, U2, Frank Sinatra and Mister Rogers. We have done some weird things here. I’ve had people read the Bible…out loud…in church! That’s cutting edge. Have you ever heard such a thing? Not just the liturgist. We have broken up into groups and read out loud together. We move around, we have had discussions. We don’t ask for a collection. We just have a basket near the front door.  We are not very familiar for anyone who is church shopping….and that’s just fine.  Because the people we want to reach are not church shoppers. They are people who have given up on the church but haven’t given up on God.

            And I think what resonates more than anything else with non church shoppers at AfterHours is brown paper bags. What people, who don’t like church, do like is that we are feeding people. There are people who come specifically to make lunches.  They get and understand that serving people with less than you is something that is bigger than organized religion, but not bigger than God.

            One of the overriding themes at both the conference and the retreat I attended is this idea of going beyond our church walls and going out into the community. Not just visiting the community, but rather, being a part of it. Finding out what they need and listening and helping them with it.

 We feed the hungry, clothe the naked and offer Gods grace to any and all. We do mercy ministry. Jesus did it and it worked out great for him…granted you have to read ALL the way to the end of the story but in the end it worked out.

            By many standards, Afterhours is not a success. We have not had explosive growth. We worship less than 60. We have moved three times in a year and a half. If we continue to measure success by rears in the seats, Afterhours is not any great success story. But if, like many of the ministries I heard about in the past two weeks, we use other measurements…I think we have something to talk about.

            I want to remind you of some of those other measurements. We have now served over 7,000 of Denver’s underserved and hungry. We have put out over 4,000 pairs of socks and countless bottles of water. God is on the move.

One of the best things about what we are doing at THE TABLE in the park is giving out communion. I have heard many people over the years tell me they don’t “do” communion.  It wasn’t until the park, when I asked them if they wanted communion they responded by saying, “What’s communion?” What a cool thing it is to get to tell someone for the first time what communion is.

I think a lot of you know that Afterhours joins the Wesley Foundation in the park every Friday and I have had the privilege of giving out first communion to at least three of the DU students that come down to the park to hand out sandwiches. I grew up Catholic. I did my first communion with a new suit and tie and all my family and a big party. These DU students did their first communion with the homeless and junkies and drug dealers. I think Jesus would approve. God is moving in a new way in the future in Civic Center Park.

            I have also handed out the communion bread AS someone’s supper. When they look down at it and ask, “What are you going to do with that,” you KNOW they’re hungry.  You realize this is not just a symbolic meal…it IS a meal. It might not be their last supper…but it’s tonight’s supper.

            Some of you remember when, with the help of Christ Church and St. Andrew and St. James and a slew of other churches, we handed out over 100 sleeping bags on Christmas day this past year. It made such an impression that we got continued anonymous donations of sleeping bags for the rest of the winter. And I truly believe that by doing that we saved lives. And we are going to do it again this year. Look for an email coming up that will take you to a link where you can purchase a cheap sleeping bag for Christmas this year and quite possibly save a life.

            I know this may sound like a commercial for AfterHours. We KNOW we are not the only church that is doing this work out in the world. There are OTHERS. People are doing great things for the community right outside your doors and beyond and believe me, the neighbors are watching. In this economy they are watching to see what we are doing for the community and what we are doing for ourselves. I will tell you this, doing God’s work is a great cure for doing church work. You watch as God moves in new ways as we move into the future.

            The last sermon series we talked a lot about transformation. It is funny how focused we can get on transformation IN the church. If you really want to watch transformation, watch what happens to the people outside the church, the people who are offering the outreach. That is where we can watch lives get changed. See, WE think serving others changes them. Silly rabbit. When I watch a guy, who two years ago never spent any time with the homeless, walk three city blocks carrying two cases of water for people he doesn’t know, I call that transformation.

            We like to think we are doing what Jesus asked us to do but the institutional maintenance of the church can take up a lot of time. That happens on a lot of levels. I don’t think God cares as much about institutional maintenance as God cares about people.

            Here’s the rub though, the institutions that we are maintaining are revenue streams. They make money. The big money St. Andrew UMC brings in fuels the ministry of this community. Until there are other revenue streams, we need to thank God for St. Andrew.

            Unlike churches that bring in money, people cost money. I truly believe I “do church” every week in Civic Center Park and I believe anyone who has been down there would say the same thing. But, the congregation of Civic Center Park WILL NEVER makes the church any money. It will actually cost the church money. And yet, I feel that is the work that we do when we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ. Jesus never filled his calendar with as many meeting as I do. I believe that being the hands and feet of Christ is what it takes to bring about the Kingdom of God.

            I think this is the future of God and the Church. I think we have to be honest about what the outside world thinks of us. I will tell you that until we spend more time outside our church walls than inside them, the outside world will never take us seriously. I talk to A LOT of people outside the church every week. We have to change our M.O.           

I think in the future of the church we will change the equation. It used to be that the equation was: get them into church, help to convince them the importance of being out in the world and then send them out. Here’s what I think is starting to happen. We are starting to turn the equation around. We are getting people out in the world first. People don’t have to be convinced that helping people is the right thing to do. They are a little shaky on church though. When they SEE our good works and when they SEE our love, that’s the deal maker. I think Jesus told us that. THAT is how they will know we are disciples.

I know two different bartenders.  One served in the Peace Core helping people in third world countries. The other is saving up money so he and his wife can go to Saudi Arabia where they can teach English to the children there. People are already doing good things. They are waiting for us to lead them.

            When the Bible talks about the Kingdom of God, I don’t think it was meant just for a moment in time after we die.  I think God is all about the RIGHT NOW AMONG US! And God is looking to create the Kingdom of God RIGHT NOW. I think we will see more people come to this realization as the future unfolds. We have to focus on the right stuff because it’s out there right now. It’s inside us right now. We have to partner with God as God helps us bring the kingdom to earth. If we take the Missional church off the pages of a book and move it out into the streets we will be doing two things, giving the people what they want AND changing the meaning of what being the church means for today and tomorrow.

            It is interesting to note, that in this passage it says that the kingdom of God is among you. There is a footnote there though. At the bottom it shows that the Greek term used for “among” in this passage is also used elsewhere in Matthew to mean “within you.” The “you” that is used is plural…meaning it is not just directed at one individual. The kingdom of God is both among all of us and inside all of us. It is about both how we each relate to God and how we relate to God through community.

            It is in this way that the future of God, the church and each of us is intertwined. The future of the kingdom of God is both in us AND among us.

            I don’t even think we can even imagine what church is going to look like in the future because God will co-create it with us.

            While I was in seminary, I asked a clergy why he got into ministry. He told me his board of ordained ministry asked him the same question. He said he responded to them the way he saw it, the church was on life support and he either wanted to help make it healthy again or pull the plug. I realized I feel the same way.

            I say we reach for the paddles, shout “clear,” and bring the church back to life in a dramatic way. The paddles can shock the church back to life. The paddles are in this room. We are those paddles. We are the ones who can either bring the church back to life or we can pull the plug. But I think, because the Church is the manifestation of God in the world, we are going to see a very different vision of what the church of tomorrow is. I believe that as we discover the kingdom of God within ourselves, we will watch the church change as well.

            The world is sick right now. I do believe that we do have the cure. We can change this world, but we have to be outside our walls to do it.

            God is going to change the world. God is out in the world changing lives. The church can give that meaning and context. We can show people that we are not all about ourselves and our money and our revenue streams. It will take brave leaders who are willing to look at church in a different way. We will find a different revenue stream than just the butts in the seats and when we do, we can focus even more of our energies on what happens outside our walls and in the process, as a happy benefit, the seats inside our walls will be filled with people who need to hear the good news to recharge and go back out into the world in a huge wonderful circle that has no beginning and no end…just like God.

When we do that we will be joining God in doing a really new thing. Amen.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Affluence

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: Luke 12:13-21

¹³Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” ¹⁴But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?” ¹⁵And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” ¹⁶Then he told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. ¹⁷And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ ¹⁸Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. ¹⁹And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ ²⁰But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ ²¹So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”

I am wrapping up a three part series called: the three A’s. Two weeks ago we talked about Appearance. Last week we talked about Achievement. Today we are going to look at the granddaddy of them all, Affluence. 

Money is a popular topic in the pulpit. I would even go so far as to say that the desire for affluence, money, accumulation, STUFF is the number one opposition to God. And to be clear, I am not saying it’s bad to actually be affluent. Money is neutral. It can be used for good or bad. A fancy mansion can be a selfish thing to spend money on…or it can be a location to hold wonderful benefits for needy organizations that otherwise wouldn’t have such a location.  Money, or rather Stuff, is an easy tool to pull us away from God. This stuff can cloud our vision. This stuff can make us confused about what is really important. In fact, I view S.T.U.F.F. as an acronym for:  Striving To Untangle Fact from Fiction. 

Chances are pretty good that we all have too much of most everything. Today there is estimated to be 1.9 billion square feet of self-storage space in America. We sometimes use this stuff to show the world how affluent we are. If we have the money to buy…fill in the blank, we must be pretty well off. Money is at the center of affluence but there aren’t a lot of opportunities to actually show off our wealth with actual dollars. Unless we are a wise guy mobster, we probably don’t carry wads of actual cash around with us. Plus, that can seem gaudy. There are more subtle ways to show the world you have money.  Especially in these times, it can be a bad move to “show off” too much. I read an article recently that says that in this economic climate the very affluent haven’t changed the amount they’re spending at all, they just do it more behind closed doors.

Most of us want bigger and bigger. The average American home went from 1,660 square feet in 1973 to 2,400 square feet in 2004.  I know we are getting bigger as people but seriously do we need that much space? We are, as a culture, obsessed with more.

Our passage today warns against the desire of affluence and greed. It is a parable known as The Parable of the Rich Fool. This story looks at an ordinary man. This man is not evil. He is by most people’s standard a success. His fault isn’t with him having too much wealth. What we get to see in this parable is how he plans on using his wealth.

In this parable we actually get to hear this man’s thoughts, his internal monologue. By hearing his internal monologue, we hear his real feeling, not those that he has polished for public consumption. As we listen in, we hear that all of his thoughts are how he can benefit from his riches. He never even entertains the thought that he could take some of his riches and share them with the wider community. In fact as we listen in, we realize how self centered his thoughts really are. I will pull down MY barns and I will build bigger ones, then I will store all MY grains and goods, and I will say to MY soul, Eat, Drink and be Merry.” All of it is ALL….ABOUT….HIM.

As a matter of fact the whole story is just him. Did you notice? It’s just him and his stuff. This man and his STUFF are the only characters in the story until God enters the picture at the end. It is all possessive pronouns: my crops, my barn, my grain, and my goods. His things are all fictions. They aren’t the things that are real and they aren’t the things that matter.

The story didn’t have to be that way. This story is not about the evil of having things and riches. It is about how we chose to use those things and riches. Never once did the man even consider giving to others. His great abundance should have lead to great responsibility to the wider world…but it didn’t.

We are faced with the same problems today. I don’t need bigger barns, I need bigger closets. As a result of this realization I realize I also have to share my riches. This is one of the best things the Bible can do for us. The Bible can be a mirror to our lives and show us how we are doing and where we can improve. But all my things are my fiction. They are not what really matter.

In contrast to the rich fool, Warren Buffet is a good example. As many of you might have heard, Warren Buffet, who is worth $44 billion, began giving away 85% of his wealth in July. Most of it will go to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. As the interviewer for FORTUNE magazine pointed out, the second richest man in the world is giving his money to the first richest man in the world.  Buffet has a very different view from the rich fool who is in our scripture. In an interview with FORTUNE magazine he has this to say: “We agreed with Andrew Carnegie, who said that huge fortunes that flow in large part from society should in large part be returned to society.”

To whom much is given much is expected.

To be clear, again, it is not the man’s wealth that is the problem. It was how he chose to direct it. At its core this story is about consumption. How much more do we need? As U2 sings, “You can never get enough of what don’t really need.”

Where and how do we allocate what we have? Does all of it need to stay with us? Does it go out into the world? Personally I flat out have too much. When you have too much you spend all of your time trying to maintain it. Maintenance of our stuff can take up all our time and eat up time that we could have used for helping others and building the kingdom of God.  We think maintaining our stuff is important but it isn’t. It is another fiction that keeps us from what is real.  

For me, this story is also about the man not trusting God. He is so worried about the future that he thinks I better horde, I better keep what I have all to myself. I know there are needy people out there but I need the security. Helen Keller’s great line, “Security is mostly an illusion. Life is either a daring adventure or it’s nothing.” Even though the man is rich…did you notice he was rich before he had his bumper crop, this man still worried about the future? His security is a fiction. It isn’t real.

This is addressed again immediately following this passage by Jesus talking to the crowd. In verse 22 Jesus is telling them not to worry about the things of this world. He warns them not to put their trust in the things of this world. In vs. 34 Jesus says “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Whatever we invest our time and our money in…those things will pull us closer to them, and farther away from God.

So the questions are many: What do we spend our time thinking about? What do we spend our money on? What do we focus all our energies on? These are the things that we have to be careful don’t take the place of God in our life.

So for me as I read this, there are multiple questions I have to ask myself.  Where do I not trust God in my life? Where am I hording? Where is my desire to consume more and want more blurring my ability to give to the world? Where have I put my confidence? Where have I placed my security? Have I put it in things of this world, which are a fiction, or in the fact of God’s love?

Fictions are untruths. Facts are based in truth. To put our trust in things is to put our faith in fiction. To believe that things will give us security is to put our trust in another fiction. And to believe that things will bring us lasting happiness is the biggest fiction of all.

We live in a time when people worship affluence. Consumption becomes our God. “More” becomes a disease that is hard to break free of. This desire for more, this chasing of affluence brings on stress, heart disease, broken relationships and crippling debt. And in the end, it can change you. It’s like the quote that says, “All my life I wanted to be somebody. Now, I am finally somebody…But it isn’t me.

You will know when you are moving into more Christ like space. You move from consuming to sharing. Your joy won’t be in your collections, it will come from giving away what you have accumulated. I am moving in that direction but have a long way to go.

This sharing or giving back is a sure sign that you are moving in the right direction. Albert Schweitzer said it well when he said, “You must give some time to your fellow man. Even if it’s a little thing, do something for those that need help, something for which you get no pay but the privilege of doing it. For remember, you don’t live in a world all your own. Your brothers are here too.”

Al had the right idea. Whether we are talking about Appearance, Achievement or Affluence they all center on ourselves. All of our time, energy, and focus are spent looking at ourselves and wondering, “What does the world think of me now?”

To be completely focused on God would mean for us to stop the focus on ourselves. Can you imagine trying to go even one whole day not thinking about yourself? Living your whole day focused on others? That would be the definition of being rich towards God.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Achievement

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: Phillipians4:5-9 

⁵Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. ⁶Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. ⁷And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. ⁸Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. ⁹Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

Every year Vanity Fair magazine prints a list of what it calls, “The New Establishment.” This year the list is topped by a 28 year old. This is the list of the most influential people in the world. His name is Mark Zuckerberg. Does he sound familiar to anyone? He is the creator of Facebook. His website is valued at 25 billion dollars. His website has more banner ads than any other website, 176 billion…a quarter. Revenues this year could top two billion.

Other people in the top ten of this list include some slouch named Steve Jobs, as well as Jeff Bezos the head of Amazon and Larry Ellison, the head of Oracle. Johnny Depp is way down at number twenty.

This is the kind of list everyone wants to be on. It screams to the world, “Look what I’ve done. Look what I’ve accomplished. I am someone important. I HAVE MADE IT.”

Granted everyone’s measurement of achievement is a bit different. I think of Steve Martin in THE JERK getting so excited that the new phone book arrived and that he was in it. “I’m SOMBODY NOW!”

Isn’t that all we want to be? Somebody? We want to, in varying degrees, stand out. We want people to see our achievements and what we have accomplished. I don’t think there is anything wrong with wanting to be acknowledged for our hard work. The challenge is that achievement can be like a drug. The more we get, the more we want. When it is bad, we want a wider and wider circle of people to know what we have done and how much better it is than the average person.

We do this in a wide variety of ways. Some people will do it through sports. Athletes get paid millions of dollars in endorsement deals when they are at the top…and have those deals taken away if they fall off the top…just ask Tiger Woods.

Others mark their achievements through academic’s. How many letters can I get after or before my name? Into what schools was I able to make it? What were my GPA and SAT scores? Still others made their way by climbing the corporate ladder. How quick can I make it to VP? Do I have a corner office? What company do I work for? Do people take notice when I mention my place of work?

Laura and I had a number of friends who worked for Disney when we lived in Orlando and one of the people that left the company came back once for a visit. I will never forget what he said about leaving the company. He said his new job was great. There was more money, better hours and it was closer to home. He said that the only thing he missed were the times when he would travel and the person on the plane with him would say, what do you do, and he would get to say, “I work for Disney.” He would watch the whole demeanor of the person change. Now he said that when he mentions his new company’s name the conversation usually fades away. Ironically, he did the same thing at both companies but his “achievement” was working for Disney.

We want to win. We want to be the best. We are a society that applauds the victor and does everything we can to reward those that make it to the top. It is important to always do our best. The question is…WHY?

Why is it so important to achieve? The more interesting question is: Would we want to do all we do if we couldn’t tell another soul? Would we achieve as much if we had to keep it to ourselves? My gut tells me no. I think a big part of wanting to achieve more is so that others can know.

Achievement is about striving, constantly working for that next thing. It’s about believing that we have to prove our worth and value to the world. It is using the present to chase the future. It is thinking that “when that happens…” I will have achieved what I need to achieve. The problem is that the finish line is always moving.

I know I felt this for years going through the ordination process. It seemed like it would never end. Year after year of getting approved and RE approved, passing from committees to BOARDS. I worked through three years of study to get a Masters degree, to then get to serving two years ON PROBATION. I was constantly striving for the next thing. I thought for SURE once I got ordained that would be over. I would have my achievement. Wrong.

We get through ordination and then the topic becomes, “what church are you going to serve?” There is a hierarchy, you know, and St. Andrew is at the top. Then it is, what programs are we going to do and what services to lead and how many people are showing up. The list of achievements is never ending.

Most people reach a point in their life where they move from achievement to serving. The focus moves from “me” focused to “other” focused. There is a huge desire to get off the Merry-go-round and start doing for others. The applause and awards begin to fade. There is more comfort in being still and quiet. Stress drops. Anxiety drops. Peace arrives.

It is often at these moments when we understand Jesus’ words. “Peace be with you, my peace I give you.” When we accept that peace, we recognize that we are not our title or our GPA or our credentials or our resume. We rest in knowing that we are enough RIGHT NOW. To think otherwise is to say God isn’t enough.

Peace and Surrender go hand in hand. Striving and surrender rarely end up in the same sentence. By giving up outcome and results we are saying to God, “I trust you on this. I know your hand is at work.” It is a place of immediate release. This release goes for all parts of our lives; our work, our love life, our family. We stop trying to MAKE things be and just LET things be.

Contrary to what some people think, we will not become lazy good for nothings. We will find our focus gets sharper for the things that really matter. When we release our striving for achievements and awards and accolades, we find we have a lot more brain space to think about what we are truly passionate about. We never have to strive towards our passion, it is already inside of us. And it was put there by God.

We live in a time of off the chart stress and anxiety. While there are some things that are very real, like our health and keeping a roof over our heads, much of pain comes from striving in a world that uses false measurements to determine value. We are enough from the day we are born. Everything else is extra.

I see so many people who don’t think they are worthy of any good at all. They have forgotten that they are children of God. They have forgotten that God is not only with them but God is within them as well. This alone should give us peace. Peace is a wonderful achievement….as long as we don’t make it a goal and an award and an achievement that we strive for….LOOK AT ME I’M STRIVING FOR INNER PEACE…AND TOTALLY STRESSED OUT! This is not what we are shooting for. We cannot get caught up in striving for any achievement, even inner peace.

So if striving is the wrong way to go, if looking for achievement at every corner, if the constant pull of trying to prove ourselves isn’t the way, what is? Releasing it to God. We see it in today’s scripture. The Lord is near. Don’t worry and ask God for what you want. For me, I want peace. I want that gentle peace that as the scripture tells us surpasses all understanding.

To truly follow this passage we have to do everything is says. It tells us how to behave. When it says, “Let your gentleness be known to everyone,” gentleness doesn’t mean what we think it means. The Greek term is more positive than that. Generosity towards others and consideration towards others is closer to what the passage is shooting for. Remember if we are not occupying our minds with striving and running and pursuing the things of tomorrow, today; if we aren’t doing that, we have some brain space to fill. And this scripture tells us just what to fill it with: truth, honor, justice, purity, excellence. These are the things to fill our minds with and as we get more and more in the habit of doing that we will find, more and more, that we will feel the God of peace being with us and in us.

This peace is also not exactly what we might think of as peace. It does not simply mean “lack of conflict.” Again, it is more than that. Its meaning is closer to total well being. It is a sharing of Christ’s attitude. Christ’s mind and heart becomes yours.

Some of you might be fine fighting along and making your way in the world. I was for a long time. I liked fighting for it. For years I had a “rugged individualist” vibe about me…at least I thought I did in my head. The problem was that I got tired. I got tired of striving and pushing and constantly trying to achieve, achieve, achieve.

Don’t misunderstand, goals are good for the right reasons. If it is for the betterment of yourself and for the world around you, go for it. But if it is just so you have one more award to impress the world with, that will never bring you joy…and it certainly won’t bring you peace.

Let the striving go. Release outcome. Be thankful and focus on the good in the world. Focus on truth and justice and excellence. DO NOT WORRY ABOUT ANYTHING. If we do these things we will find ourselves with more joy, more peace and more God in our life.

We probably won’t find ourselves on the next Vanity Fair list but if we have more joy, peace and God…do we really care?

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Appearance

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: 1 Samuel 16:7 

⁷But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”

I have mentioned before that one of the favorite shows of the Herships family is Biggest Loser. We are always amazed at the transformation that takes place over those few weeks. You can watch them change little by little right before your eyes. Along with their physical appearance you can also watch their personalities change as well. They come out of their shell. They smile more, they laugh more. Their appearance changes everything.

            The other show that Laura and I have watched for years is What Not To Wear. Clinton and Stacy go through someone’s closet, throw out a bunch of the person’s lousy clothes and then give them money to buy new clothes that work for them and help them figure out what looks good on their bodies. The guest also gets tips on Hair and make-up. Again, we watch, week after week transformation. It is just so cool to watch these people blossom.

            Having said all that, I have mixed feelings. On one hand I love seeing people transform into these new, amazing, confident people. On the other hand, I struggle with how much our physical appearance affects, and in many cases determines, our emotional well being. I know if I lose a pound, I’m happy, if I gain a pound I’m sad.

            This is not an accident. There are many people in the world, with salaries attached, to make sure that there is always something wrong with us…and if we just hand over our credit card…THEY can fix it. Here are a few facts you might not know.

The FASHION INDUSTRY draws in $47 billion dollars a year.

According to current estimates, The COSMETICS INDUSTRY, including toiletries and cosmetics, comes in at over $45 billion in the U S and 66 billion, annually, worldwide.

For the PASTIC SURGERY INDUSTRY, over 10.2 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures were performed in the United States in 2008, according to statistics released by the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. The second most common procedure was liposuction.

And last but not least…

It is estimated that the DIET INDUSTRY alone is worth anywhere between 40 to 100 billion dollars a year in the U S.  They sell temporary weight loss because 90 to 95% of dieters regain the lost weight.

We might know that beauty is only skin deep but that is not stopping us from doing everything we can to make that skin look GOOD.

As I have said before, I am often preaching to myself when I am up here. While I have not had liposuction, and don’t buy make-up, I have spent my fair share on gym memberships, have more than a few pairs of jeans and must admit that I do have a favorite moisturizer. See me after for the name.

            Why do we spend so much time, money and effort trying to look good? It must be important to God. After all, it is God we want to please, right? God is the source of our pleasure correct? How we look must matter to God.

            I was very tempted to use the Book of Ecclesiastes as the sermon text today. After all, one of its most famous sayings is “Vanity of Vanities.” The word vanity in the Hebrew Bible takes on a meaning that goes beyond our understanding of being caught up in our looks. The Hebrew word is hebel and it literally means “vapor.” Some scholars say the modern day equivalent is “absurd.” The key point of the word though is how transitory life is. Nothing lasts, including our looks. Appearances…don’t…last.

            Understand that I am not saying it isn’t important to put our best foot forward. I think it is very important to be healthy and to do our best to eat right and exercise so we can be healthy. I just think there are a lot more people at the gym trying to get a six-pack and lose some of their rear end than there are people trying to lower their cholesterol.

            I should also tell you where the idea came from to preach a message on this topic.

            Many of you know Marcus Borg. He is a professor of Religion at Oregon State University. In his book, The Heart of Christianity, which I will be leading a class on in the next few weeks, he says that we are caught up in what he calls THE THREE A’s: Appearance, Achievement, and Affluence. We will be looking at these topics over the coming weeks.

            This week we are focusing on our appearance, which is not that unusual for many of us. At some point in our lives we start to focus our lives on the outside more that on the inside. Theologian Frederick Buechner calls this, living our lives from the outside in, rather than the inside out. There becomes a shift when we start to concentrate on what Thomas Keating calls, “Our False Self.” This is not nearly as important to God as our true self, our real self, our inside self. Our Souls.

            This is the point of our passage today? Our story today comes from 1 Samuel. The two books of Samuel were found on a single scroll in the Dead Sea Scrolls. Bible Scholars also tell us that 1 Samuel was not all written by the same author. In this part of 1 Samuel we are told part of the story about how David became anointed by God. Jesse brought out all of his sons, except David, to show them to God but God kept saying, “What else have you got?” Finally God said, “Is that everyone?” And Jesse said yep…well except for David. He is the youngest and ruddy and hasn’t been on What not to Wear. He surely isn’t the one. Guess what? God saw things differently.

            God ALWAYS sees things differently. That is the nature of God. God is not concerned with the things that take up all our mental space. What do our bodies look like? What do our clothes look like? What does our car look like? What does our home look like? God doesn’t care if your car isn’t waxed, your backyard is a mess, your jeans are torn and you need to lose 20 lbs. God sees our heart. It tells us right here, “Do NOT look on his appearance or the height of his stature…the Lord does not see as mortals…they look on the outer appearances but the Lord LOOKS ON THE HEART.”

            How’s your heart? I know even with my line of work, I spend more time on outer Jerry than inner Jerry. Better than I was, not as good as I could be.

            We live in a world where appearances matter. We got a letter a few weeks ago that we had to cut down three trees in our back yard because they were dying and unsightly. It cost us over $400. That’s $400 that we could have used. Now I want our yard to look nice but there are thousands of dead tress in the Rocky Mountains and people are always taking pictures of those! They go on vacation to be in the woods…woods with no HOA. But we have to keep up appearances. We live in Highlands Ranch. I know it’s good for resale value and it keeps the neighborhood looking great but boy do you know how many jeans and hair products I could have bought with that money?

            It is interesting to note that nowhere in the Bible do we get a physical description of Jesus. It is safe to say, he didn’t have wavy brown hair and blue eyes. His looks were not what drew people to him. He was not George Clooney. It was his soul. It was his heart. It was the way he treated people. I sometimes wonder if it isn’t a preacher’s job to remind people (and themselves) that if you want to attract people to you, worry less about your weight and more about your heart condition.

How is your heart? Is it open? Is it loving? Is it the kind of heart you want God to see? I hope it is…for all of us…because that’s all God is going to see. God cares more about the size of our heart than the size of our waist.

            I want to close with a story I heard a long time ago about Jesus. Jesus gets invited to a party and is very much looking forward to it. He wants to arrive early but knows that’s not what the “cool” people do, so he waits till it’s time for the party to start. When the time arrives, Jesus gets to the front door and knocks. The host opens the door and lets Jesus in. As soon as Jesus walks in we see the scenario. It’s a formal black tie affair. Everyone is in formalwear. Tuxes, ball gown, high heels and patent leather shoes. Everyone is dressed to the nines. Everyone except Jesus. Jesus didn’t get the memo. Jesus is wearing jeans, and sandals and a long sleeve t-shirt.

 

            What would Jesus do? WWJD. Literally, WHAT WOULD JESUS DO? What happens next?

 

Talk about that with the people around you for a few minutes and then I’ll tell you the rest of the story.

            Ok let’s come back. So Jesus is at a party and underdressed. What does he do? I will tell you first how mortified I would be to be Jesus. That would just be awful. I’d probably look at my blackberry, pretend I had an emergency and turn and run out the door. But I’m not Jesus and I have a long way to go. What kind of answers did you all hear? The answer lies in three words.  HE WOULDN’T NOTICE. He wouldn’t notice the fancy gowns or the shiny shoes. He wouldn’t see who was wearing what designer. He wouldn’t care if the tuxes were double or single breasted and who was wearing a peak lapel (those are very in this year you know). He would see their heart. That’s all.

            I encourage all of us to start looking less at people’s skin condition and more at people’s heart condition. I pray for the day when I can be anywhere at any time and not only not notice what others are wearing/or driving but that I don’t care what I am either.         

That would be a transformation that leaves Biggest Loser in the dust.

Amen.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Perfectionism: Wanting to be God

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: Matthew 5:48 

⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Many of you know of Anne LaMotte. She is an awesome writer and writes about God and faith and not in the most traditional of ways. Someone posted a quote from her on their Facebook page this week: "Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life.” Now that is a great quote, but what I noticed was how many people commented on it. TONS. People REPOSTED it on their page. Clearly this hit a nerve and got me to thinking about how does trying to be perfect all the time affects our lives and why this relentless pursuit?

            I don’t think most people openly admit to wanting to be perfect and I think the pursuit of excellence is important. I think we all should try to be the best we can be. But there is a difference between wanting to be the best we can be and shooting for perfection. I also found myself thinking about what is attached to the drive towards perfection. What happens when we don’t achieve it? How is our performance attached to our understanding of self worth, our understanding of others or our understanding of our relationship to God?

            I wonder if, at the core, there is some kind of thinking that if we do everything JUST RIGHT, THEN everything will work out. That is TREMENDOUS pressure to put on ourselves, every Step…just right. I’ve heard people say, “I did everything just right, I did everything I was supposed to do…and then THIS.” I think it is this thinking that every step in our lives has to be perfect that sometimes prevents us from taking that first step at all. The rest of the quote by Lamotte, says perfectionism, “is the main obstacle between you and a lousy first draft.” But she didn’t use the word lousy. There is a mind set there these days that, “if it can’t be great right out the chute, I don’t want to do it.”

I have had to adjust my thinking with preaching and writing. When you do stand-up, you work on a given twenty minutes for YEARS. Every breath, every pause, every word….constantly edited and reworked. With preaching you are given one week to strike gold. And then….you will never say those words again!

If you are a perfectionist, that is a recipe for crazy making. Plus it leaves no room for the Holy Spirit to work within you and come out in your writing and in your speaking. Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John, "I am the Vine; you are the branches. If someone remains in Me and I in them, they will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."

That does not just apply for preachers doing preaching. We have to allow God to work in our lives, all of our lives. Part of the problem of perfectionism is the mindset that we can do it (whatever the “it” is), ourselves. We have to remember we are in partnership with God in our lives. It is like the St. Augustine quote, “Without us God will not. Without God we cannot.” It’s a partnership.

            I think this is one of the things that we forget when we begin to lead a perfectionist life. We edge God out…We have said before that E.G.O. is an acronym for Edging God Out. I think this is at the center of perfectionism. In those moments we catch ourselves thinking, “I…can…do…it…myself!” that we get in trouble. I have had those moments. 

            We can trace this back, I think, to fear. What will people think if I am less than perfect? What will my co workers think? What will my kids think? What will my parents think? What do I think of myself if I am less than perfect? What will God think?

We don’t even have to go all the way back to the Bible. Our own John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was fond of saying we are moving towards Christian perfection. He wrote an entire book called A Plain Account of Christian Perfection. So we have Wesley and Jesus telling us to be perfect.

Which brings us to today’s reading. It is just one verse. We see it in other Gospels as well. In Luke it is slightly different…it substitutes “merciful” for “perfect” so we are off the hook there.

What is Jesus telling us in this passage when he asks us to be perfect? I have spent this whole time trying to persuade us not to be perfect and then Jesus comes along and mucks up the works. Are we to be perfect or not? Shouldn’t we do what Jesus tells us to do? Isn’t it our job, as disciples, to follow in his word? If he is calling us to perfection we should go, right? The words are pretty simple aren’t they? Actually, it might not be as straight forward as we might think it is.

This is not the only place in the Bible where we are told to be perfect. We first see it in the Hebrew Bible which we call our Old Testament. It is in Deuteronomy 18:13. “You shall be perfect before the Lord your God.” When we couple this with, “Be perfect, therefore, as your Father in Heaven in perfect,” it almost seems like we are not just being asked to be perfect, we are being commanded to be perfect. THAT’S PRESSURE!

The first thing we have to do is look at the time when this was written. What did the words mean then, what do they mean now? How has the meaning of the words changed?

The Hebrew Bible word, used in Deuteronomy, is tamim, which means wholeness in the sense of not being partial. To “be perfect” is to serve God with the whole heart, not a partial heart, to be single minded in devotion to the one God. It is not splitting our focus. It is not having more than one God. It is being in love with God; completely and totally.

When we get to the New Testament, the Greek word, "perfect," in this Matthew verse is telios, a word which doesn’t imply a no mistakes kind of perfection, but instead means full development and growth into full spiritual maturity. The focus of the verse falls more along the lines of meaning a "committed and close relationship with God." (The Complete Biblical Library:101) This verse is also in the context of love. The challenge is to love as our God loves, not only loving those who love us, but loving even our enemies and those who persecute us.

So the Deuteronomy verse is telling us to love God with our whole heart, our whole self. And the Matthew verse is telling us to love our neighbors. When we put these two together it sounds an awful lot like what we hear later in Matthew 22:37.  It says for us to love God with all our heart, soul and mind and to love our neighbor.  This is called the greatest commandment and we’ve talked about that before. Suddenly, “Perfect” looks a lot different now doesn’t it?

See I’ve discovered it is not to be thought of the way we think of being perfect today which has its root in the Greek philosophical understanding of perfect. Perfection is not to be understood in the Greek sense of living with absolute perfection, which we know is impossible for us to do.

We are not asked to not make mistakes. We are not asked to live a life that never fails. We are not asked to make the perfect and right decisions every minute of every day.

We are asked to give our whole heart to God. That is the “perfect” God wants from us.

So that clears up what the Bible means by perfection but it doesn’t clear up our desire of perfection, does it? I think there are maybe a handful of us who put the perfectionist pressure on ourselves because of these verses.  I’ve got to be perfect because of Matthew and Deuteronomy. But I think that’s not the case for most people. I don’t think most people even know about passages. I think the pressure comes from any number of other places; our culture, our families our co-workers. I, also, think the vast majority of us put the perfectionist label on ourselves. It might have started in one of those other places but I think we are the ones who turn up the volume on our desire, or drive, our need to be perfect.

There is only one perfect. That’s God. When we want to be perfect, we want to be God. When perfectionism kicks in, we find ourselves, on some level, wanting to be like God.

So what can we do about it and how do we know if we are a perfectionist?

On a quick search of the internet, I found the following perfectionist thought patterns. See if any of them sound familiar to the tapes that might have played in your head in the past…by the past I mean up to the last hour.

• I should be liked, approved of, and loved by everybody, especially those important to me.
• I should be able to do anything and everything perfectly; if I cannot, it's better not to do it at all, or wait until I can. In other words, I will procrastinate in doing anything until I am convinced I can do it perfectly
• I must be perfectly confident and successful before I can consider myself to be a worthwhile person, or before others can consider me to be worthwhile.
• I should be able to make and keep everyone around me happy; if I don't, there is obviously something wrong with me.
• Here’s one for the Social Justice folks. It is my personal responsibility to right the wrongs of this world, to solve its problems, and to correct all of its injustices.
• Because I have never been able to fully please my parents, friends, and/or peers, I must be less than desirable and worthwhile as a person.

Here are some that have to do with how we think of God and being perfect:

• God only accepts and loves me when God can approve of everything that I am, think, feel, say, and do.
• God saves by God’s grace, but only maintains this relationship with me if I read, pray, witness, serve, and do enough for God.

            Perfectionism is about self image. It is about how we see ourselves and how we think the world sees us. Neither of these are the right source from which to get our information. We need to constantly remind ourselves that our worth comes from God and God’s love for us. This is a love that is equal to all. This is a God who loves Mother Teresa & the drug dealers the same, a God who recognizes all as children of God, and a love that’s not determined by income, skin color, sexual orientation, neighborhoods or countries of origin. That’s God’s love and we’re being asked to love the same way.

Our identity comes from what our God thinks of us and our God loves us regardless of how we perform, the titles we have, the grades we get, or how “perfect” our last project turned out. Nothing can stop God’s perfect love…and that’s all the “perfect” we need in our lives. Amen.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

The Best Sermon You’ve Ever Heard

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: Acts 20:7-11

⁷On the first /day of the week, when we met to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight. ⁸There were many lamps in the room upstairs where we were meeting. ⁹A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, began to sink off into a deep sleep while Paul talked still longer. Overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground three floors below and was picked up dead. ¹⁰But Paul went down, and bending over him took him in his arms, and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.” ¹¹Then Paul went upstairs, and after he had broken bread and eaten, he continued to converse with them until dawn; then he left.

I NEVER want to hear that my sermons are too long or boring. Essentially what this passage tells us is that Paul preached till someone fell asleep, fell to their death, Paul revived him and said, “OK, where was I…”

Today’s sermon topic started when I decided to take a friend out for a celebratory beverage after the birth of his daughter. He is in the ordination process and we discussed the future of the church. We have both read a lot of books about church but what we discovered as we talked was that those books aren’t addressing what we really want to address. Then he said something that hit me right between the eyes. He said, “I don’t want to know how to market church different. I want to know how to DO church different.”

            Now there might be a lot of you thinking, “Why do we have to do anything different? Church is just fine the way it is.” That’s true for a lot of people. It isn’t true for the majority of people. We often forget that the majority of the people in this country are sitting home relaxing on Sunday morning. There have to be things that we are willing to do different if we want to see new people come through our doors.

            And by new people, I don’t mean people that were worshipping somewhere else. That isn’t introducing new people to this Good News we say we have. That is just people of the faith worshipping under a new roof. This is why bodies can be deceiving.

            I think if we are going to attract new people, we have to do new things and I am willing to start.

What is the primary function of the preacher on Sunday morning? To preach. I think this is a fine place to start. There is something about the way pastors do sermons that is not engaging for most people out in the world. Preaching has even taken to mean something derogatory: “Don’t preach to me.” Here is something I’ve learned; when your profession becomes an insult, it is time to rethink that profession.

            We have to get at the core of what a sermon is, what the purpose is and what do people hope to get out of it. I try to make all my sermons have at least four things: something for the thinker, something for the feeler, something for the realist, and something for the innovator. I also try to toss some hope in there because I think that is good news.

            The question is: Does all that need to be done the way we’ve been doing it? I did a little research.

            Did you know that the word "sermon" comes from a Middle English word which was derived from an Old French term, which in turn came from the Latin word sermō; which means "discourse." The word can also mean "conversation," which could mean that early sermons were delivered in the form of questions and answers and only later did it come to mean a monologue.

Now the Oxford dictionary defines discourse as coming from the Latin discursus, meaning "running to and from."  It means either "written or spoken communication or debate" or "a formal discussion or debate."

The scripture we are talking about today looks different in a King James Bible. The King James Bible says Paul preached to them. When we look at the Greek text, the word used in that passage for preaching is dialegomai, from which we get our English word dialogue. Paul wasn’t preaching at them, he was in dialogue with them about the gospel, and even then managed to put at least one guy to sleep! This makes me wonder how many other places in the Bible the word “preach” is used when it is actually the word “dialegomai.”

This is fascinating to me because discourse and conversation and question & answer and dialogue are pretty far from what I see in sermons today, mine included.

As a lot of you know, we have tried various models of discussion at AfterHours. We have given a topic to discuss, we have had table discussions and discussions while making sandwiches. No one is currently reading the scripture to the congregation, they are, instead, reading it themselves and TO EACH OTHER and then discussing it. Imagine that! People reading the Bible IN CHURCH! OUT LOUD! We are a wacky, cutting edge bunch!

The hardest part is getting people to have a back and forth conversation with me. This is so not in line with our tradition. Our tradition says, “Sit down, shut up and you might learn something.” O.K. maybe not that harsh but there is that feel sometimes. And please understand, I am not against learning and teaching. It is one of the main reasons people come to hear a sermon. But I believe there is lots of knowledge in the room and that too often we are afraid to share it. I want to give you a different way to do that here today. Let’s see what happens. On the screen is my cell phone number. It is a phone that will take text messages. I want to ask a question and give you a chance to answer without having to deal with talking in front of others. Here’s the question: What do you hope to get out of a sermon? What do you hope to change after you hear a preacher speak? If you have a thought, even if it’s one word, text it to me now.

            Now just a quick thought. If you heard me talking earlier when I said I try to have something for Thinkers/Feelers/Realists/Innovators and you don’t know which one you are; if you think this is the coolest thing you ever saw, you’re an innovator. If you are thinking, “this is the dumbest darn thing I’ve ever seen, you are probably a realist. If you are still thinking “So it’s a Middle English word that came from a French term that came from Latin?” you are probably a thinker. If you like what I’m wearing, you’re a feeler.

                The bottom line is: how can our communication together bring all of us closer to God? Preaching has become not only an insult, as I said earlier, but it is also a punch line. There’s a joke about a priest whose sermons were very long and boring, he announced in the church on a Sunday that he had been transferred to another church and that it was Jesus' wish that he leave that week.  The congregation in the church got up and sang "What a Friend we have in Jesus!"

            So what is preaching? What did Jesus do? How did he preach or teach? John Dominic Crossan, the professor emeritus at DePaul University did an interview on PBS.  He said, The primary teaching of Jesus is not taking texts out of the Hebrew scriptures and explaining them, blasting them, commenting on them. What he is doing is telling a perfectly ordinary story and using that as the major teaching. The Kingdom of God is like this. Now you have to think, well, I hear the story, but how on earth is the Kingdom of God like that? That's your job as the hearer. So it's open to anyone. And that's, I think, the point of the parable. The interviewer said that it sounds like Jesus’ teaching depends on interpretation. Crossan said, If you teach in parables, you give yourself to interpretation. If you really want to tell people what to think, you preach them a sermon. If you tell them a parable then you're leaving yourself open, inevitably, to interpretation.

Jesus didn’t try to shove a message down anyone’s throat as so many preachers are accused of doing these days. Jesus told stories that created discussion. Haven’t you always found that conversations are always more interesting and educational than having someone talk at you? This is especially true of people in their 20’s and 30’s. They have, for much of their lives, interacted to learn. Question and dialogue is the way they have always obtained knowledge. I think it is harder for them to listen to a monologue without having the chance to question, comment or state their points of view.

I’m curious about how many people, by a show of hands, we have that are 60 plus. In their 50’s? Their 40’s? Their 30’s? Their 20’s? Under 20 you might still be coming because someone else wants you here. I think if we are going to further the message of Jesus Christ we have to be in dialogue about what we read in the Bible and not just have a message delivered at us. And I think when we do we might see an explosion in young people.

I know some of this comes from my background. It was always more engaging when there was exchange with the audience when I did comedy and corporate training than when it was just me doing my monologue or lecture. It was also more dangerous. You never knew what was going to happen next, what was going to be said next and what kind of insights would be made. 

Shouldn’t the gospel be dangerous? Shouldn’t we be willing to dialogue and discuss and debate and when it is over we shake hands and go to IHOP? Those are the conversations that you will remember. If you have been going to church regularly for the past, say twenty years, that would come out to being about 1,040 sermons. How many do you remember? A hundred? Fifty? Twenty-five? Let’s say it’s 25. That’s two and a half percent. There must be a better way to engage with scripture.

Turn to the people around you right now and ask them how long they have been going to church and how many sermons they remember?  Do you remember the best sermon you ever heard? Tell the person next to you about it. I’ll wait.

Let’s get in there and rough it up a bit. Let’s chew on the gospel of Jesus Christ and digest it and really lift each other up and teach and learn and remember. I think we are going into an amazing time in the future of the church. Get excited. It is going to be an awesome ride.

Any questions? I hope next time I ask…there are. Amen.

Sunday, August 08, 2010

People, Prayer, and Potlucks

By Kyle Lewis

Scripture:  1 Corinthians 12: 4-11

Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

Let’s imagine a potluck. People are gathering together and sharing a dish. It might be their favorite comfort food.  It might be something simple and inexpensive because they are out of work or they are overworked. It might be a recipe passed down for several generations. Who knows?  Who knows what food will be there? Who knows what people will be there? Some of the dishes will get our mouths watering and some ………….not so much. It is like people. You never know what you will get. But, our part is to accept and honor this unusual combination of food and people who have come together. We can learn so much from each other and the more dishes the better.

Some people like to organize the potluck so they don’t end up with a dozen of the same dish.  We might have all potatoes. But, come on… Does it ever really happen that way?  And it if did we would probably get a dozen different types – garlic mashed potatoes – potatoes au gratin- that great casserole made with hash browns. A literal comfort -food smorgasbord!  This is a lot like people. Even if people appear similar, they are never the same. The potluck is a great metaphor for community.

With the continuing rise of technology and our increasingly hectic lives, many of us are realizing that we need to make an intentional and unique effort to establish community, which goes beyond a virtual community. Some of us are asking the questions “What is community?,” “Where can I find community?” and “Do I truly feel I belong anywhere?”  

I am a student at Iliff School of Theology. As someone who is considering becoming an ordained minister, I have been looking closely at the importance of being in community and what constitutes community.  I am coming to believe that we can grow and learn and heal more deeply when we join a welcoming and open faith community, rather than trying to go it alone.  

Is it necessary to join a community to find God and a sense of meaning in our lives?  ---Maybe not in an absolute sense. But – the journey can be quite long and lonely without one. We are certainly called as Christians to value our relationships with others. Jesus said that the greatest commandment was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. He could have just stopped there. It’s already a pretty tall order. In his wisdom, he added, “and the 2^nd is this.. Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:28-34). If he had stopped with the first commandment, we could have found a way to isolate and have it be all about our own individual journeys. Jesus is teaching us that it’s about both – learning to love God AND people.

At staff meeting the other day, one of our staff members shared the notion that the symbol of the cross can represent our love of God and our love for each other. We need both in order to live as fully engaged Christians. I can think that I am the most loving person in the world when I spend time alone, but boy……. put me with a large group of people and I have to learn to be more accepting and less judgmental. Some of this can’t be worked on in isolation.

Two books helped me decide the title for today’s topic. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert and Women, Food and God by Geneen Roth. Hence, the title – People, Prayer and Potlucks. These 2 books reveal the journey each of these women took to discover God and themselves.  Elizabeth Gilbert took a one year journey traveling to Italy, India and Indonesia . Her book discusses what she learned about simple pleasures, spirituality and love. She has been criticized by some for being on a journey of self-absorption, but here are her own words: “Mine is just a simple old human story — of one person trying, with great rigor and discipline, to comprehend her personal relationship with divinity.”

Geneen Roth made her discoveries by being aware of what food she was putting on her plate and into her body. This was her pathway to God. Towards the end of her book she states, “If you are willing to refrain from dieting and needing an instant solution, and if you want to use your relationship with food as the unexpected path, you will discover that God has been here all along.”

These two books really resonated with me. I have struggled with a relentless need to find God and meaning and I spent a lot of my 20’s hardly able to stay in one place as I searched. I identify with the struggle with food and I realize that this is a spiritual issue for me. I can sometimes use food like a drug and become numb to others, God and myself.

The one thing that isn’t emphasized in these books is our need for community.  Most of my young adulthood was spent thinking I didn’t need a church to find God. I was one of those people who felt I was spiritual, but not religious.  This was an important time for me – realizing that God goes with me wherever I go……This is part of the vertical line of the cross. But I am recently discovering the richness of the horizontal line – the path of community.  

Here is a quote about interdependence from the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca, who lived around the time of Jesus. “We are members of one great body. Nature planted in us a mutual love, and fitted us for a social life. We must consider that we were born for the good of the whole.” This is similar to our scripture for today from 1 Corinthians.  Verse 7 states, “To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.”  This is why we are given gifts – for our common welfare. 

I think there are certain things that every one of us is longing for – a sense of belonging, of making a difference, of finding and using our gifts and of feeling like we matter and that it matters that we are here on this planet.  Most of this has to do with our interdependence, rather than it being all about our personal solo journey.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her book, Women Who Run with Wolves, tells the story of an old African American man who came out of an alley and to some he might have appeared crazy. He was shuffling along, speaking to anyone and no one and pointing a finger into the air. In Clarissa’s particular Mexican tradition these people are to be listened to for their wisdom. He sat down and told Clarissa a story which he called “One Stick-Two Stick: The way of the old African Kings.” The story is about an old man who is dying and he calls his people to his side. He gives a short sturdy stick to each of them and asks them each to break their stick. They are all able to break their sticks. He says to them that “this is how it is when a soul is alone without anyone. They can easily be broken.”

He then proceeds to give each of them another stick and says. “This is how I would like you to live after I pass. Put your sticks together in bundles of 2’s and 3’s. Now, break these bundles in half.” No one was able to break the sticks. The old man smiles and says, “We are strong when we stand with another soul. When we are with another, we cannot be broken.”

A couple of months ago I was really struggling with what church is all about.  Part of the struggle – and I am not the only one who has ever had this struggle – was asking the question “should we just be out on the streets or should we be learning about God and praying and becoming better people so we don’t scare the people on the streets?” 

I tend to fall into the second category. However, we contemplatives and lifelong learners can fool ourselves and never get to the streets.  But somehow this question is too black and white. It doesn’t get to the crux of the matter.

On one particular day after I was journaling about this, I got into the car and turned on the radio. It happened to be on K-Love. (Aside---a bit conservative , but I just rewrite some of the lyrics in my head.)This song came on and I didn’t even drive out of the garage. I sat in the car and listened to the whole thing with tears running down my face. Three words in this song pierced through me --“We’re here now”. 

The song really got me thinking about community.  What if church was a place where you walk through the door and they say, “We’re here now. You don’t have to walk this path alone. We’re in this together. We don’t exactly know where we are going, but it will be so much better if we head there together.“ I don’t even know if the writer intended for this song to be about a church community, but that is how I heard it. 

There is even another way we can welcome the new person who is walking through the door.  We could say, “You’re here now. Thank goodness! We value your gifts and your unique spirit. We will be a stronger community now that you are here. ” We might not actually say this aloud. We don’t want to scare people. But -we can say it in our hearts. And somehow they will hear it or feel it. The word "community" is comes from the Old French communité which is derived from the Latin communitas (cum, "with/together" + munus, "gift").  Together- gift. Maybe we can start saying, “let’s have a ‘gift-together’”,  rather than a get-together.

Do we realize the gift of community? Can we even comprehend the power of being with others and sharing our gifts? And if we add prayer and food to the mix,  we our unstoppable! Imagine this on a bumper sticker - People, Prayer and Potlucks – a tool to change the world!

Sunday, August 01, 2010

Just One More Thing…

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Philippians 4:10-12

¹⁰I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned for me, but had no opportunity to show it. ¹¹Not that I am referring to being in need; for I have learned to be content with whatever I have. 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.

I am going to be hypocrite tonight.  I am going to talk about the monkey on my back and it’s been there for a long time.  My hope is that you all aren’t carrying the same monkey.  My guess is that’s not the case.  I’m talking about contentment…or lack thereof.

            Even when I know right from wrong, when it comes to contentment, I can slip into not being content at the drop of a hat.  I’m not proud of this, but it would be a big fat lie if I said anything different.  It’s not unusual for me to want just one more thing…

            I think we have been trained to think that somehow the people who make working for God their professional work as having less struggles and less baggage to deal with. This is so untrue.  I think we are moving away from that and starting to understand that clergy, and other people who work in the church, are on this journey with us.  Ideally we can all walk, together, through the places that we all deal with. This is one of the things I like about Paul.  He does brag about what a great disciple of Christ he is, but he also speaks openly about his shortcomings.

Laura and I were talking about this earlier in the week.  She pointed out that there are different ways to look at being content and there are different things with which to be content or not be content.  We naturally go right to the material stuff but it goes deeper than that and we will be looking at that tonight.

            I used to think that contentment meant the same as a lack of ambition.  There was a time in L.A. when that was unthinkable.  I would do anything and everything to get ahead when I lived in L.A.  Contentment wasn’t just about stuff but was about what I had achieved in life as well.  What did others think about what I had achieved?  Knowing the right people and getting to the top was the goal.  At one point I was working at a talent agency for comics during the day and Emceeing at the Improv in Hollywood at night.  I would get the Premier magazines power issue that came out every year and cut out every person’s picture and make flash cards so that if the head of production for Paramount came into the club I would know who he was.  I wanted to be able to spot the V.P. of casting for ABC at a glance.  It was all about getting ahead.

            I’m here to tell you that is an exhausting way to live.  I was NEVER content.  And I was never happy.  But no one could say I wasn’t ambitious.

            I was warned against this by my brother Gene.  At one time he had the highest rated talk show in Canada.  Better numbers than Johnny Carson.  But I remember the day he told me the story about the first day he got his first talk show.  He said that instead of living in the moment and taking a minute to congratulate himself, he said he remembered thinking as soon as the show went off the air, “How can I make the show syndicated?”

            This is not the life God has planned for us.  When we live in the place where God wants us to live, we live a life of inspiration, not a life of ambition.  We live a life where we are constantly asking God, “What direction do you want me to go next?” and then….being okay with where God might lead us.  We go from being DRIVEN to being GUIDED…and we are okay with God leading the way.

            This is an important distinction.  I think when we are moved to change a situation in the world, we are being divinely guided to do so.  We are inspired.  Anyone in history who wanted to change the world didn’t do it because they were content with the way things were.  I believe that anyone who wasn’t happy with women not getting to vote, with slavery, with the struggles of gays and lesbians are people who aren’t ambitious, but rather they are inspired by God to change the world.

            When John Wesley, the founder of Methodism wrote, “Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever you can” …these were not the words of a contented person.  I would like to believe Wesley was inspired but not ambitious.

This does not mean that life will be easy.  Paul tells us he is content in ALL things, even the not so great ones.  His hope, satisfaction and comfort lie in something beyond what is happening in his life at any one given moment.  Paul is saying that when he is stripped of everything…which happened to him more than once, he was still content.  He lived a life guided and inspired by God.

            Paul is also telling us that he knew what it was like to also have plenty.  He didn’t feel guilty about it.  He didn’t put all his faith into having it.  He didn’t define himself by it.  Paul is telling us that regardless of what the world bestows on us, it is not the determining factor of satisfaction in life.

            And we church people aren’t immune to it either.  We might cloak it a different way but I have to be very careful I don’t succumb to materialism and ambition.  Have inspiration to serve God – absolutely but ambition to succeed on the world’s terms is dangerous.  I have to remember whose Kingdom it is that I’m building.  It’s not Jerry’s kingdom.  It’s God’s kingdom.  We work hard, we pray hard, we do the best we can and then allow room for the Holy Spirit to operate.

            Now I also wanted to look at this from the angle of what we talked about last week, spiritual gifts.  We can often get caught in the trap of not being content with not only the stuff we have or the place we are in life but also of the talents and gifts that others have that we don’t.

            God has no interest in making a second best of another person.  God is very interested in making a first best of YOU.  We are called to constantly find out what is unique to us, what makes us great, what makes us different than everyone else.  We spend so much time comparing ourselves to others that we forget to spend time finding our uniqueness.  We need to spend time finding those spiritual gifts that God has given to us in a unique combination for just us.

             I have to admit I would love to be in better shape, have less debt, and have a better singing voice.  Contentment doesn’t mean I stop working out, stop paying off debt, or stop singing (mostly in the shower).  What it DOES mean is that I don’t define myself by those things.  Contentment means I love me where I am RIGHT now.  God does.

            All the rest of the stuff is frosting on the cake, a cake that God made for us.  When we fully understand just HOW MUCH God loves us…it will be at that moment that we will find our contentment.  We will not have to buy shoes and cars and brag and impress and strive and fight to PROVE we are special.  We will rest in the knowledge that God thinks we are special.

            And that will be enough.

            Are you content with who you are?  Are you content with what you have at this moment in time?  Are you inspired or ambitious?

I pray that the peace and contentment that is offered to all of us will be a gift we recognize sooner rather than later.  When the moment comes when ALL of us will know, deep in our bones, that we are loved children of God, not only will we be content, but we will see the arrival of the Kingdom of God.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

You Look Great!

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: I Thessalonians 5:11

¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

God has a sense of humor.  No doubt about it.  I planned weeks ago to talk about encouragement and optimism.  Being positive in your own life and being positive towards other people.  Well God said, let’s have a little fun.

            Tuesday the garage door broke.  Wednesday morning I greeted the day with a sound I had never heard before.  It sounded as if all the shirts, pants, sweaters and belts in my closet came crashing to the floor.  It turned out it was all my shirts, pants, sweaters and belts crashing to the floor.  I broke my closet.  Now I don’t believe God broke my garage door or closet but I have to admit, the timing was a little suspect.

            Telling people to be encouraging and positive sounds almost New Agey and that is really a shame.  We now live in a place where to be positive and encouraging to others is seen as almost quaint.  Sometimes it seems even naïve.  It also makes you suspect.  I love the t-shirt that said, “Smile, people will wonder what you’re up to.”

            Turns out, as I look through the Bible I see that encouragement isn’t New Agey at all.  It’s biblical.  As we saw with spiritual gifts last week, the Bible loves to take important themes and tell them to us again and again in different ways.  Ephesians 4, Proverbs 10, Acts 15.  Hebrews 10 tell us, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.”  And we see it again and again in Romans and other parts of 1Thessalonians.

            So if we see it over and over again, why don’t we do it?  For one, I think a lot of us didn’t know it was a reoccurring theme in the Bible.  Note to self: read Bible more.

            Honestly, I think we have become a society that if you are positive and encouraging you are seen as weak.  I certainly saw this in entertainment over and over again.  I have seen something like it in ministry.  You might be surprised to hear this but here it goes: there are some pretty big egos in the ministry business.  I know…you’re shocked.  Big egos don’t hand out a lot of compliments.  Insecurity doesn’t breed building each other up.  A lot of people in our conference want to see you doing well in ministry…but not TOO well.  Encouragement is handed out very sparingly.

            I brought this to people’s attention while I was going through the ordination process.  They said they want to make sure probationary Elders don’t get a big head.  I said, “Yea heaven forbid they display any confidence.”  They didn’t like that much.  Luckily I was ordained anyway.

            We are in a world that can beat us down time and time again.  Many times people really are out to get their own because that is all they have ever been taught.  They see the equation as, “if they win, I lose and I ain’t gonna lose.”  That equation is old math.

            God does new math.  God wants us all to win.  God wants everyone to shine.  And God knows that God is not always going to be able to get that message through to everybody every time.  That is why we are here.   We are not just to be God’s hands and feet in the world, but also God’s mouthpiece.  We are to help people understand they are wonderful.   We are to remind them they are a unique, special gift from God.

            I heard a preacher say one time, “In any given moment we can choose to bring more love or less love into the world.”  I’m going to do a sermon series on the book, Three Simple Rules.  The rules are simple: do no harm, do good, stay in love with God.  These are simple, but not easy.  We chose if we want to bring more joy or less into the world a million times a day.  It can be the smallest thing to us but not to them.  Don’t be surprised if, on a regular basis, you start making people’s day.

             God modeled this very type of encouragement.  We hear it in two of the most famous verses in the Bible.  The master in Matthew 25:21, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  And in Matthew 3:17, “This is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  That second one was what my dad toasted to me on our wedding day, just over 18 years ago.  As much as we don’t want to admit, we like when people say nice things, it feels wonderful when they do.  It’s ok to like it….it’s not ok to NEED it.  If God can hand out praise and encouragement…consider it a green light for us as well.

            And so many people don’t.  It costs us nothing and yet, so often, we stop ourselves before we say anything.  I say, let the encouragement fly.  It might be the single best thing you do all day.  People are starving for encouragement.  I think it is as essential as food.  Talk to anyone who has achieved anything great and they will tell you they had their cheerleaders along the way, people who believed in them…and told them so. 

            Paul tells us in Romans, "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification," (Romans 14:19).  This is pretty straight forward…except for that edification part.  What is edification?  The Greek noun translated edification as oikodome.  This is a compound word made up of, oikos, a house, and demo, to build.  According to W. E. Vine, Oikodome is "only used figuratively in the New Testament, in the sense of edification, the promotion of spiritual growth."  

One of the reasons we gather together is to lift each other up when we get here.  We are here to encourage others out in the world but that doesn’t mean we can’t start right here with each other.

            So let’s look at 1 Thessalonians.  For one thing, it’s the oldest book in the New Testament and as a result, it is the earliest piece of Christian literature that we have.  It was written at least 15 years before Mark which is our earliest Gospel.  It was dated to about 20 years after Jesus’ death.

            Paul set up this church in a large urban area.  His M O was to stay in or close to the city so that he would have the greatest opportunity to meet the most people.  Sound familiar?  We know they were a tight knit group and that they had suffered persecution from the wider community.  

We also know that the community was doing well even after Paul left.  This letter, unlike many of Paul’s other letters, is not sent to “fix” the problems the community is having.  It is more of a fan letter.  Paul is telling them “good job and keep up the good work”.  In a phrase, it’s a letter of encouragement.

            I also want to be clear in saying that I am not talking about being a Pollyanna and ignoring when the lousy stuff happens.  The garage door isn’t going to fix itself.  It is just making a choice to see it in a better light, to see people in a better light.

            One of the guys down in the park broke his ankle awhile back.  He already was homeless but now he is homeless AND in a wheelchair.  He told me last Tuesday that the doctors told him that his ankle is healed and that he is to use a walker to reacclimate his ankle to walking again.  I told him what a pain this must have been for him and he told me, “I’m just glad it healed right and everything is working out.  I don’t have health insurance so I have to deal with that and can’t afford a physical therapist to come by and my meds have run out but wow, it could have been so much worse.  I thank God every day.”

This is what being an optimist looks like.

            Write the note, tell someone you love them (preferably someone you already know), give that compliment.  Encourage the folks around you.  God did it.  Jesus did it.  Paul did it.  That is some pretty awesome company to be in.  I’m thinking it’s time to join the club.

            I want to finish with a story about George Carlin.  Years ago he was performing in a little club in Phoenix, and a college kid who lived in Tucson, about two hours away, drove all the way to Phoenix to give Carlin some jokes he had written.  Carlin was polite (he always wrote his own stuff) but told the kid if you come back tomorrow, he would look over the jokes and they could talk.  The kid drove two hours home that night.  Then turned right around and drove two hours back the next night.  The kid went in the back of the comedy club and there was his material all marked up and Carlin went through each of the 20 or so pages one at a time with the kid.  He told him, “You’re very green, but there is something funny on each page.”  Then Carlin said very earnestly, “If you’re thinking of pursuing this, I would.”  The kid decided right then to try to pursue comedy.   

The kid ended up becoming the mentor to a generation of people at the very top of the comedy world today.  He became a mentor to the top writers, directors, and performers.  One magazine says he is a kind of Yoda to every funny person born since 1960.   And all of this because back in 1968 George Carlin told Gary Shandling he should consider pursuing comedy.

            We never know what encouragement will do to someone and the ripple effect it will have.  Why not encourage someone and then sit back and see what happens.

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Save the Planet, Save Yourself

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture:  I Corinthians 12: 4-7

⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.

Most people today don’t know who Herman Kahn is today.  He’s was a preeminent futurist. He predicted back in 1967 that by the end of the 20^th century, Americans would enjoy 13 weeks of vacation and a four day work week. He said the challenge would be trying to figure out what to do with all our free time. Anyone here trying to figure out what to do with all their free time?

            He kinda missed the mark.

Americans now work, on average, about the same as we did in 1970 and the average American gets four weeks of vacation (that includes holidays). Kahn had reason to make his prediction.  According to an article in Business Week, the number of hours the average American worked dropped 25% between 1900 and 1950, and no one back then saw any reason for this trend to stop. We aren’t like other places in the world. Western Europe isn’t racing to the finish line nearly the same way Americans are. The French work 28% fewer hours than Americans. The Germans, 25% fewer. A higher percentage of American adults work; they work more hours and they work more weeks out of the year.

Thank goodness we all love our jobs right. We…do love our jobs right?

Actually, not so much. According to MSNBC, Americans hate their job more than they ever have in the past 20 years. Fewer than half saying they are even satisfied. That is kind of a drag considering that we work on average 46 hours a week. That’s a lot of hours doing work we don’t want to be doing. You might have seen the video we put into the church wide email this past week about Robert Rudolph who decided to leave behind work that he didn’t like for work that made his heart sing. He is now happier than he has ever been. Now not all of us can do that and as someone who did just that five years ago, I will tell you it does come at a price, but what if there was a way to bring more happiness into your life right now? Would you at least consider it?

That joy is not going to come from the television. The average American spends 35 hours a week watching television. That’s a lot of Biggest Loser, CSI and Love Boat. That is nearly as much time as we spend at work.

Esquire magazine did a story a while back based on government labor statistics. It broke down the time of a 24 hour day and figured out what amount of that day was spent doing what activities.  It found out that the average man (this is a magazine geared towards men, hence the slant) spent eight minutes volunteering. Seven minutes of the average a day was spent on religious and spiritual activities.  Seven minutes. That’s 35 minutes a week.  And yet we spend 35 HOURS watching TV. 35 minutes with God. Guys, you got most men in this country beat just by sitting thru this service!

So if we look at this all together we see that, on average, we spend too much time at a job we don’t like, nearly the same amount of time watching TV and seven minutes a day directed to God.

I know I don’t spend as much time as I should with God. Now I’m not talking work related God time. I’m talking one on one, “Jerry with God” not “The Pastor with God.”  One of the best ways to do that is thru service. How much time do you spend in service for God?

I think part of the reason we don’t spend more time is that we have always been taught that service has to be a drag. And honestly, many times, it is. And part of the reason it is a drag is that I think that we have been doing it wrong. We have been saying, “where are the slots that need to be filled…fill them.” Rather than, “what do I believe is my God-given gift that I can offer back to God?” When that is layered over something I am passionate about and my talents, I get to serve God with Joy. Is there anyone that couldn’t use a little more joy? The idea is to find that place for you to serve where your talents, spiritual gifts and passions crash together. That is a place the world needs YOU.

In this passage today, Paul is talking about Spiritual Gifts. These are gifts given by God to us. Everyone has them. EVERYONE. I love the quote I heard a long time ago that I used to keep in my wallet. It said, “What you are is God’s gift to you. What you become is your gift to God.” Most people haven’t even spent the time to open the gift in the first place!

After I did my three part series on service a few months back, I heard from a couple of people that said, “I want to serve, but I don’t know how. How do I know what’s the right fit for me?” One way is to do a spiritual gifts assessment. There is a good one to start with at www.umc.org. Once you are there at the top in the “search site” box type in “spiritual gifts” and you will be off to the races. The UMC.org site is a good place to get your feet wet. On the hard copy of this sermon that will be on the wall I am attaching a list of Bible passages where God is calling us to use our Spiritual Gifts.

I am not going to kid you, the church benefits from this too. There is something in it for us. When it works perfectly, we get people who are serving God and the church thru joy. The church gets stronger and God’s love shines out into the world to help heal it. Not a bad day’s work. But remember, when Paul wrote these words, he was talking about not just the benefits to the church but also the benefits to the giver. WE receive blessings when we give from service. I agree with Thoreau: Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.  This might be a way to change that. And it pleases God.

I read a poem at AfterHours a few weeks back. It is from the Calcutta poet and writer Rabindranath Tagore and it says: I SLEPT and dreamt that life was joy. I AWOKE and saw that life was service. I ACTED and behold….service was joy.

This is 180 degrees from where the world is. Rick Warren has a great quote around this. This is from his book We Serve God by Serving Others. He says this:

 “The world defines greatness in terms of power, possessions, prestige, and position. If you can demand service from others, you've arrived…Jesus, however, measured greatness in terms of service, not status. God determines your greatness by how many people you serve, not how many people serve you” Once again we see that the ways of the world are completely opposite of the ways of God.

The other thing that’s nice about serving the body of Christ, which Paul was calling the church, is that it becomes your church even more. It is your church. OWN IT. The more we serve from our strength, the less we have church presented to us, and the more we have the church present IN us.

I need to say again, there are times in our life when WE need to be the one that gets served. Relax. I have found that when people have felt the service and love of the church, it is those people that serve best when that time comes.

In a recent interview with actress Courtney Cox from Friends, she made the comment that she is the most comfortable she has ever been in her own skin. She said while she was never competitive, she said she was comparative. Always looking at where she was in comparison to others.  I think a lot of us could fall into that category. I have had my bad days (read: years) where I am looking over my shoulder to see where I am compared to others in this rat race. This is a very high stress place to be.

That is the cool thing about spiritual gifts is that we don’t have to do that.  Everyone is unique. Everyone is needed. All the gifts come from God but are different for every single person. When I took my spiritual gifts assessment it told me my top three spiritual gifts are evangelism, teaching, and three was a tie: knowledge and leadership. Every person’s gifts are different but they ARE ALL NEEDED for the kingdom of God.

On top of that, we did nothing to earn these gifts so there is no need to think you’re all that. You ARE awesome but guess what? SO IS EVERYONE else.

Sometimes people feel like God and the church could never use their gifts. They are too weird. Too unusual. Too...not churchy enough. I used to think that. When Laura and I left L.A. and started going to church in Orlando, I never thought I had much to give the church. My main talent that I had was stand-up and hosting and being an emcee.

The first week we went to St. Luke’s in Orlando, Bill Barnes was standing at the back of the church shaking hands. When he got to us, he asked what I did for a living. I told him I was a corporate game show host.  There was a long painful moment (at least it seemed long to me) and then Bill said, “Would you ever be willing to host anything for us here at the church.” I remember I just lit up. Now here was something I could do, didn’t mind doing it and it was something that it was safe to say, not everyone was lining up to do. I hosted dozens and dozens of events for St. Luke’s in the ten years we were there and it never felt like it was coming from any place but abundance. I served out of my passion for performing and my spiritual gift of communication.

Some of you might be doing just great right where your life is. You might feel that you are serving the way you should and that you have plenty of joy in your life. Great, but for those of you who feel like there could be more joy in your life, or more service in your life, or want to claim that unique thing that is specific to you…that thing that God has given you…think about taking a spiritual gifts assessment. Think about what you LOVE to do. Think about what you are GOOD at doing. God is calling us to serve out of JOY. When we do, we just might save the world, and in the process, we just might save ourselves.

 

 

SPIRITUAL GIFTS SCRIPTURES

 Biblical imperatives for equipping ministries through gift-based service …

1.     A ministry of serving others is an act of love for and devotion to Christ. (Romans 12:1-6)

2.     God has a unique purpose or calling for each of our lives.  (Ephesians 2:10, 1Peter 2:5, 9-10 and Jeremiah 1:4-5)

3.     We all have been given gifts to fulfill our calling.  (1 Peter 4:10-11, Psalm 139:13-16)

4.     Gifts are given not to be left idle, but to be used in community, to serve God and others.  (Romans 12:4-8, 1 Corinthians 12:4-12, 18, Mark 10:42-44)

5.     We more deeply understand our personal relationship with Christ as we serve in community.  (John 15:12-17, John 21:15-17, Ephesians 4:16, Hebrews 10:24-25)

6.     Real spiritual growth is activated as we serve others.  (James 1:22-25, 27, 2:14-17)

7.     The role of leaders in a church community is to equip others to use their gifts so that everyone can grow.  (Ephesians 4:11-16)

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Identification Please

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: John 15:8 – 12

⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.⁹As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. ¹²“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

 

John 13:34 – 35

³⁴I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

How do you identify yourself?  What makes you….you?  In our society, we have a lot of things that we use to identify who we are.  We use titles like mom and doctor and custodian or where we live: Greenwood Village, Downtown, or Colorado.  We also describe our cars: Volkswagen, Jeep, Humvee.   All these things tell us a little bit about who we are or at the very least, how we project who we are.

            Another part of us is the community part, the people with whom we associate.  With our community associations, we say to the world, at least in part, “this is who I am.”   I am a member of Greenpeace, or a member of the NRA, or a republican or democrat.  I am a member of St. Andrew UMC or Cherry Hills Community Church.

            Like it or not, all of these things make a statement to the outside world about who we are.  They are of very little interest to God.  In these two scripture passages, God tells us what we need to do and, by doing it, what the outside world will see and say about us.

            I have talked about John 13: 34-35 before but tonight I am looking at it from a different angle.  Why we are disciples, how to know if we are disciples and what the world will think of us if we truly follow Jesus’ commandment.

            Both of these passages focus on and show a connection between love and discipleship.  It is really amazing how many things AREN’T mentioned pertaining to the qualities of being a disciple of Christ.

            Harvey Martz is doing an excellent series right now about what we promise when we become members of the Methodist church.  We promise our prayers, presence, gifts, service, and witness.  These are all things that can lead us to being better disciples.

            Thousands of years earlier, Jesus didn’t make anyone take membership vows.  He didn’t need to.  He used one measuring stick to define someone as being his disciple or not.  Do they love?  Both verses tell us that this is how they will become and how the world will spot them as disciples.  It is the “bearing of fruit,” the “doing” of love that is the visible, meaningful, nitty-gritty, proof-is-in-the-pudding sign of discipleship.

            If we are to abide in God’s love, we have to, as individuals and as a community, bear fruit.  Abiding in Jesus’ love, just like Jesus abided in God’s love is about as good as it gets.  Another word for abide is dwell.  We dwell in God’s love.  No wonder the verse tells us that when we do this our joy will be complete.  Yea, I’m thinking that’s true.  And we find that joy, we find our discipleships, we find our connection with God and Jesus through service in the world, love in action.

            We struggle with this idea that service can bring us joy.  Service is so often tied to work and, let’s face it; it is called “work.”  For so many people work and joy are not things that just naturally go together.  But what if we looked at service as not drudgery but rather as simply a road we take leading to discipleship and leading to God’s joy?  Not too shabby huh?

            Rabindranath Tagone, Indian poet, playwright and essayist won the Noble prize in literature in 1913.  I hadn’t heard of him prior to this week.  He wrote these words.  “I slept and dreamt that life was joy.  I awoke and saw that life was service.  I acted and behold, service was joy.”

            This is an old concept but not one that I heard a lot about growing up.  Many dads got up, went to work, did their time and came home. (For the record, moms did, too, but it’s Father’s Day so they get the shout out.)  What is interesting is that if we dig just a little bit deeper, we see that the REASON the Father did this was for the joy of his family.  It was bringing others joy…even when the work was less than fun.

            Our Father wants the same thing (and yes, I realize the masculine language, if I was giving this on Mother’s day….She would want the same thing)…our joy to be complete.

            Our job is to find the way that our love manifests in the world.  This will become our calling card.  Not the car or the neighborhood, or the job title.  We will become the thing that we use to make into the physical Jesus’ love for us and our love for him.

            I have mentioned commentaries before.  They are the gigantic books that biblical scholars write to talk about the Bible.  Sometimes there are entire books written about ONE book of the bible.  It is fascinating but it’s not what we know that makes us disciples.

            I just spent four days at the Rocky Mountain United Methodist Annual Conference here in Denver.  We have been doing it over 100 years.  Not me personally, but honestly, sometimes, it can feel like it.  It is the structure and the order that keeps the United Methodist Church running.  It, too, is necessary but it’s not what makes us Disciples of Christ.

            I am now on The District Committee of Ordained Ministry.  We are the first panel who grill, for lack of a better term, the people who want to go into ordained ministry.  It is an important part of the ordination process to make sure people have had the proper training and have given enough time to discerning God’s call in their life.  But it’s not what makes any of us disciples of Jesus.

            I sometimes think I had more faith and more comfort and more appreciation of God BEFORE I got all this other stuff into my life: the formal education, the conference politics, the committees and boards and panels that help to run the system.  It is easy to get caught up in all of that and forget what it is that God and Jesus ask us to do.

            Love each other.  Love the world.  Find a way to show that love in doing something for others and through that, we will find our joy.  When we do that…we will find ourselves living out what it means to be a disciple.

            As we have seen before, when God wants something to stick to our hearts, God makes sure we can’t miss it.  I had my awesome assistant Kathy print up these sheets that show us a good number of verses that point to this one great commandment.  Pull it out whenever you get caught up in too many committees, reading too many books, attending too many things and remember, all you have to do is love on people.  Find the best way to do that so you affect the most people in a real tangible way and you will be doing what God commands of us.  You will be a disciple.  No one will have to come to you and ask for identification as proof of being a follower of JC. 

           

 

 

House Where Nobody Lives   by Tom Waits

 

There's a house on my block
That's abandoned and cold
Folks moved out of it a
Long time ago
And they took all their things
And they never came back
Looks like it's haunted
With the windows all cracked
And everyone call it
The house, the house where
Nobody lives
Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone's heart break
Or did someone do somebody wrong?
Well the paint was all cracked
It was peeled off of the wood
Papers were stacked on the porch
Where I stood
And the weeds had grown up
Just as high as the door
There were birds in the chimney
And an old chest of drawers
Looks like no one will ever

Come back to the
House were nobody lives
Once it held laughter
Once it held dreams
Did they throw it away
Did they know what it means
Did someone's heart break
Or did someone do someone wrong?
So if you find someone
Someone to have, someone to hold
Don't trade it for silver
Don't trade it for gold
I hav´got all of life's treasures
And they are fine and they are good
They remind me that houses
Are just made of wood
What makes a house grand
Ain't the roof or the doors
If there's love in a house
It's a palace for sure
Without love...
It ain't nothin but a house
A house where nobody lives
Without love it ain't nothin
But a house, a house where
Nobody lives.

Monday, May 24, 2010

The Final Reason

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Scripture: Isaiah 1: 13 – 14, 17

¹³bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation— I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. ¹⁴Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁷learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

Amos 5: 21-24

²¹I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. ²²Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them; and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals I will not look upon. ²³Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. ²⁴But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.

Today I am wrapping up a three part series on outreach.  In the first part, I talked about how important the world needs us to reach out.  The second time we talked (I make that sound like we were just sitting around chatting…really, you just let me just go on and on and on.), I talked about the benefits to each of us when we go out and serve the world.  Today I want to give the final reason.  I saved the best for last.  If the first reason is, it pleases the world, and the second reason is that it pleases us, the third trumps them both.

            It pleases God.

            It actually is more than just pleasing God. On some occasions, God commands it.

            There is a challenge when you do these kinds of sermons or sermon series.  By the third one, you can start to be tuned out.  “Yea, yea, yea we get it…go out and serve.”  I can start to sound like a broken record.  There is also the risk of sounding holier than thou.  Bill Barnes, my pastor in Florida, use to say, and I am blatantly stealing from him now: Don’t you know?  I preach to myself and let you all listen in.

            This is my stuff to work on, too.  So many people have said to me that I give so much to the homeless.  I am down in Civic Center Park two hours a week.  Two hours. There are people who give their LIFE to helping the poor and oppressed.  If I spent on the homeless what I spend on clothes and wine and fast food…well let’s just say, the homeless would be in a much better place.  Please know this message is for all of you but there is a healthy dose of, “Physician heal thy self,” thrown in.

            There is a famous saying in clergy circles.  You didn’t even know we had clergy circles did you?  The saying is that a preacher’s job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.  Now no one in this room knows what category anyone else falls in.  It is safe to say, though, that a good many of us are comfortable.  I read recently in a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan that if you make $52,000 a year, you make one hundred times more money than the average person on this planet?  Only you know what category you fall in.  Appearances can be deceiving.

            Appearances are what our scripture passages are talking about today.  They are taking it beyond a person’s individual appearances and moving into people’s group appearances.  Both of these passages come from the Old Testament and are directed at those who participated in and lead worship that, to the naked eye, looked wonderful.  

            All the right things are said and done.  Every rule is followed and every area covered.  God is telling us in this passage that how things appear on the outside is not what concerns God.  God is more concerned with what happens on the inside.  God is telling them and us, I don’t care what the outside of the church looks like; I care what the inside looks like.

            In both of these passages we are not just looking at what God doesn’t like.  It is clear in both Amos and in Isaiah that God doesn’t want us to just go through the motions.  In Isaiah God says, I cannot endure solemn assemblies. And again in Amos God says, I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.  In both passages God states that God won’t take their offering and to take away the noise of their songs.  None of that is pleasing to God when it is offered in a shallow way.

            But God doesn’t leave them there.  God tells them and us, in both passages, what IS important to God.  Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow.  Those are what count to God in Isaiah.  In Amos we get the same feeling but different words. … let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream.  These are powerful words.  So powerful, that Dr. Martin Luther King used them in one of his more famous speeches.

            This week is the celebration of Pentecost.  It is considered the birth of the church.   Pentecost is not about a solemn assembly.  It's a time for excitement, energy, movement, birth.  It is about fresh air and fresh commitment.

            We are going to be living these ideas in the coming months here.  Not just with our new building, which will help us reach out to people in our neighborhood, but in how we go into the world as well.   As many of you know, AfterHours is going to be homeless in two weeks.  We are in the final stages of dialogue with a location that will allow us to be in ministry even closer to the city.  It will be a location where the homeless are blocks away, not miles.  Local demographics indicate that this is a location that has a very low receptivity to traditional denominational religion.  Sounds like just the place for AfterHours!  This move is about new life and new commitment and new birth.  This move may be a modern day Pentecost.  But it will take more commitment, both from the leaders of the church, and from those who attend.   It’s about 15-20 minutes from here.  It is not as convenient as going to church in this building.  It will be a reminder that part of our relationship to God and church are not about convenience but about commitment. 

            It is a time to get fired up about God and the church.  Pentecost is the exact opposite of going through the motions.  Pentecost is feeling the fresh breath of God.  It is feeling the spirit move among us and around us and in us.  It is about taking this power and making great things happen for the mission of the church.  And what is the mission of the church?  God tells us.  Seek justice.  Rescue the oppressed.  Defend the orphan. Plead for the widow.  How does this translate to today?  In a phrase: Help those who can’t help themselves.

            Amos and Isaiah are not isolated cases.  It has been said that you can find a Bible verse to support just about any thought or action you want to support.  Remember the bible isn’t a book, it’s a library written by many different authors from many different places in time.  They are going to have different points of view making the next thing I say even more amazing. 

            Do you know the scriptures mention poverty more than 2,100 times?  It’s mentioned throughout the Bible in the Old Testament and New and in the gospels as well as the epistles.  It is everywhere, 2,100 times. That is not just passing commentary.  

            Early Bibles were rare things.  Remember, the printing press was not created until the 1400’s.  Prior to that very few people had their own Bible.  The earliest materials where costly to reproduce and every word mattered. And yet over and over and over we see this mention of the poor.  It is clear to many people, myself included, that this is a central piece of the scriptures.  Make no mistake: the poor matter to God.  And when we help the poor, we are making God smile.  Who doesn’t want that?

            When we talk about Pentecost being the birth of the church, we don’t mean structures or committees or potlucks or long hymns and even longer sermons.  We are talking about the birth of Christ in and among the people as a group, to go out and change the world.  The 3000 people that agreed to follow Christ on the day of Pentecost were mobilized to go out and do the work that Jesus did.  And what did Jesus do?  He fed the hungry, healed the sick and ate with sinners.  He made people feel whole again.  Is there a more important mission in the life of the church than to emulate Jesus?

            Let us never lose sight that for God church is not solemn assemblies, shallow offerings and token praise.  Does anyone enjoy token praise?  This is a time for us to get recharged.  It is a time to feel God’s love and life fill us up so that we can go and do the work in the world that pleases our God.

            We know that going into the world helps the world.  We know that we feel better when we do it.  And we have over 2,100 reminders that when we go out and help those that need our help, it makes God happy.  What are we waiting for?  What more do we need?  Feel the spirit of Pentecost.  We have the opportunity to go out and show the world what a church on fire looks like.  

We do it for them.  We do it for us.  We do it for God.  Sometimes the old words are the best: Go out to love and serve the world.  

            Thanks be to God. Amen.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Being Different

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Luke 4: 18-19

¹⁸“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, ¹⁹to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Being Different means to be comfortable in your own skin and also being comfortable with other people even when they are really different from you.  Rather than continue to be just like others and fit in, something most of have been trying to do our whole life, we need to keep whittling away at ourselves to find our most unique and authentic self.  The bowling shoes are a bit of a gag but they are intended to drive home a point.  Are we willing to be ourselves at the cost of possible ridicule?  And believe me, there WILL be ridicule today.  

Can we be the self we were meant to be?  The self God designed us to be.

This is what Jesus was doing when he made his pronouncement in the temple.  Notice that it didn’t get much positive attention. That is often one of the things that keep us from being who we really are.  It is ironic, the people that are comfortable being themselves and being different are the ones we end up most admiring – usually.

The next question is how comfortable are you with other people who aren’t like you?  How often are you even around people who aren’t like you?  We, as a society, tend to gravitate to like minded people.  People that dress/act/look/smell and conduct themselves like we do.  

The problem is that the Kingdom of God is not like that.  Look at the bunch of 12 guys that Jesus had around him. They were Fishermen, Tax Collectors, and Zealots. Remember Tax Collectors worked for the Romans and were totally despised. Zealots on the other hand, wanted to overthrow Roman rule and would have wanted to kill anyone collaborating with them. This was awkward.

In addition to hanging out with this rag tag bunch, Jesus spent the rest of his time with drunks, prostitutes and other assorted sinners. Notice that we are not talking about REPENTED drunks, prostitutes and assorted sinners. None of these categories could be used to describe Jesus but he is still with them. He actually seemed to LIKE being with them.  JESUS VALUED DIVERSITY. And when we want to be like Jesus, we need to value that as well.

Outreach – one of the good things about this passage is that we see what it is that God, through Jesus, values.  One of things that God values is those who have had a tough road.  The underdog, the oppressed, the ones society has kicked to the curb.  That is the team God is on.

In his 2006 National Prayer Breakfast, Bono tells that he used to pray that he always seek the Lord’s blessing in his work.  Finally he says a wise man said, “Stop.” The man said to him, “Stop asking God to bless what you are doing. Get involved with what God is doing – because it’s already blessed.” And I have to tell you, what God is doing is being with the poor. God is with the poor in the slums of Calcutta, and the dying in Africa. God is with the underfed in Sudan and the people of war torn Darfur.  God is right there with them and if we want to be where God is we need to find the poor and take a seat right there in their midst.

Sadly, we don’t have to go half way around the world to be with the poor. They are right in our own backyard.  They are in the soup kitchen that Sara Miles works at in San Francisco. In her book, Jesus Freak, she talks about the idea of fair and unfair when dealing with the poor.  I have had to deal with that myself down in Civic Center Park. There are pastors from other churches who go down to the park and serve on other days and one day one of them wrote me an email and said that occasionally someone would ask for a second lunch for “their friend or wife” and he felt like he was being taken advantage of.  He asked me what I do in that situation.  I told him I just give them the second lunch because of something I read in Sara’s book.  In her book, she talks about the inscribed message on St. Gregory’s altar.  It says, “Did not the Lord dine with publicans and harlots?  Therefore, make no distinction between worthy and unworthy: all must be equal in your eyes to love and to serve.”   She goes on to say “it was impossible to be taken advantage of as long as you were giving something away without condition.  If it’s trade, then it’s fair or unfair,” she said, “but if I’m going to give it to you anyway, no matter what you do, then you can’t take advantage of me.”

When we let God do the judging and we do the loving, that means that, on occasion, not just the homeless, but the occasional junkie, and even the occasional drug dealer just might get a sandwich.  When we love as Jesus loved, we don’t have to decide who deserves food.

AfterHours and St. Andrew has handed out over 1500 lunches in the last seven months and over 1200 pairs of new socks.  This is not because the shelters and agencies aren’t doing a good job.  They are overwhelmed.  In fact, about half of the guys I come in contact with in the park are staying in the shelters already.  But the shelters are stretched to the limit.  Even if we filled every bed in the city, there would still be thousands left with no place to go.  

We know we aren’t the only game in town.  In fact there are lots of things that we can’t do.  We don’t have the resources.  But what we have now is the trust of these men and women.  And with that trust, we tell them they can go to St. Francis Center to get a mailing address and that DenUM will help them get id’s.  We hand out flyers with our lunches that list every place in the city where they can find food and on what days.  But despite all that, I think what we give people in that park is dignity.  In the same way that Jesus told “sinners” they were okay in the eyes of God, that is by allowing “sinners” to eat at his table, we remind people that God has not forgotten about them and that they shouldn’t forget about God.  By feeding their stomachs AND their souls we ARE bringing good news to the poor.  A poor that is very different from you and me.

Some of you might be feeling like you are being called to help the poor in a step beyond writing a check.  Make no mistake, writing a check is great, please do.  But there is a feeling you get when you go out to serve.  It is a sense that this is how the Kingdom of God is brought to “earth as it is in heaven.”  We know that we don’t earn our way into heaven, but at the same time, we also know that when we fully recognize the gifts we have been given, we can’t help but want to serve.  James tells us in his first chapter, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves.  Do what it says.” (1:22)

There is SO much need and you don’t have to go half way around the world.  In Mike Slaughter’s book, Change the World, he lays out some of the statistics: 3.9 million people sixty-five and older are living in poverty and there are 13.3 million under the age of eighteen living in poverty.  In total, 37.3 million Americans are living in poverty. And these are numbers from 2007!

Some of the worst pain in this country didn’t happen overnight.  It slowly, painfully slipped lower and lower.  It happened in my hometown of Detroit. 

Detroit might have fared better had it actually had an overnight disaster of some kind.  Then it would have been dramatic and the world would have heard its cries.  Unemployment is staggering.  How staggering?  A recent TIME magazine article about Detroit said three years after Katrina, the unemployment rate in New Orleans hit a peak of 11%.  Today Detroit’s unemployment rate is 28.9%.   If Jesus came to proclaim good news to the poor….I have just the place.  And I’m going.

This summer, June 27^th through July 3^rd, St. Andrew is going to a place that is about as different from Highlands Ranch as you can find in this country and we are going to show what it looks like when you live the Gospel.  We have 13 people signed up and room for a few more.  We wanted to take 20 but I told Jeri Dwyer to find out how many we could take.  We can take up to 30.  I think by the time this day is done, we will have our 30 AND a waiting list.  I believe there are people in this room right now feeling a tug on their heart to go out and serve these least and last of our nation.  And make no mistake, this nation has given up on Detroit.  But God has not.  We will be going in and planting urban gardens, cleaning up homes and working in soup kitchens.  This is what it looks like to bring good news to the poor and if it’s not good news to the poor, it’s not the gospel.  We will be staying at Metropolitan UMC which, in the 1930’s, was the largest Methodist Church in the world with 7,200 members.  That’s not the case today. Most of the people have gone, but God has not…and we are going to prove it.

Do know this is not the normal thing to do.  This is not the status quo thing to do.  Some would say this is not even the most logical thing to do.  While some of you might be feeling a tug on your heart, others of you are thinking, preacher, you’re crazy!   This might not be normal or status quo or even the most logical but since when has following Christ been the logical thing to do?  Think about our beliefs.  Jesus is both human and divine?  Save your life by losing it?  Sell everything you have and give it to the poor?  Not the best marketing plan and yet this is who we are.

This is what it looks like to be out in the world.
This is what it looks like to do the work of Jesus Christ.
This is what it looks like to be different.
Welcome to being different.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

He has risen….so what?

By Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz

John 20: 1-18

¹Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰Then the disciples returned to their homes.

¹¹But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; ¹²and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

It seemed unfair to me that we spent the last 6 weeks talking about burnout and failure and loneliness, guilt and suffering and pain and then….NO EASTER AT AFTERHOURS.   A lot of you came to St. Andrew which was great but I know at least a few of you couldn’t make it for one reason or another and so for that reason I decided to give a quick take on my thoughts on Easter…although a week late.  It’s okay he’s still risen.

If you are a church person, last week was pretty awesome with a huge choir, huge crowds, and powerful sermon.  Easter and Christmas have an electricity that is hard to replicate week in and week out at church.  But when we are singing “Christ the Lord is risen today…Aaaaaa, aaaaaa le lu, u ia,” that is pretty awesome.  It brings back such great memories for a lot of us.

I heard an interesting statistic a few weeks ago.  The speaker said that there are roughly 300 million people in the United States and that 200 million of them are unchurched.   That fascinated me.  Two out of three people that we run into in this country don’t go to church on Sunday.  They might go to church a few times a year, probably on Christmas and Easter.

When I was growing up, we called them C&E Christians…Christmas and Easter. Someone said to me, as I was standing in the hallway at St. Andrew saying good-bye to people, “don’t you want to say to some of these people, “See you next year at Christmas?”  Actually, no…I don’t want to say that.  For about 12 years I was one of those C&E Christians.  I already didn’t feel like going but thought I would give it a try.  I already ASSUMED some of the self righteous people who were there every Sunday were already looking down on me because I wasn’t a “regular.”

Those of us that go to church know the story, know why it’s important for us to celebrate, know why it means so much to those in the story, but what of the rest of us?  Why does this story matter to the average Joe or Jane who are not regulars at church every week?  How does this story help us on a day to day basis?

There are many things that this story tells us, but before we go there we have to address what the story DOESN’T tell us.  It doesn’t give us scientific proof.  It doesn’t give us definitive proof that Jesus physically became alive again with his heart beating and lungs pumping.  We will NEVER be able to “prove” that.  Remember, the Bible is true and some of it actually happened.  If we need to have the story proven to us to find its value….well, it’s going to be a long wait.

There are things we can learn about the passage and about this story that can be useful.  We are looking at the Gospel of John.  It was the last of the four gospels written, right around 80-90 AD.  It was written primarily to those who already believed but has elements of things that would appeal to those who do not yet believe.  It is not one of the synoptic gospels.  The other three hold many similarities but John mentions characters and events that the other three don’t and the other three have stories and events that this one does not.  It has the most symbolism and can be understood in many different ways.  All that is to say, John sees things different.

One of the great things about going to seminary is that you get to learn things about culture and language that you otherwise wouldn’t get to know about.  Without realizing it, this passage has a lot to do with seeing things.  But it might not be so clear to the reader at first glance.

There are two kinds of seeing in this passage.  When we look at this in the original Greek we see that the word “saw” is used in two different ways.  For example, when we see it first used in verse 1, the Greek word is flappo which means physically, with your eyes.  We see it again in verse 5, “he SAW the linen wrapping lying there.”  What is interesting is when we see the word “saw” again, it is used in a different way.  This time, in fact, every time we now see that word in this passage it is, Theorayo, the Greek word for oracle.  This means to see something with the mind.  It would be used the same way we would say, “We saw the love between the bride and the groom.”  Do we mean we actually saw the love with our eyes?  No.  Was the love we saw true none the less?  Yes.  It is true without being factual.

When we move beyond asking the question of what literally happened and start asking what is this story trying to tell us…what is this story trying to teach us…what is this story going to do to help us learn how to live our lives…now we are on to something.

Here’s what I think: When we put our trust in God, certain things will happen to us the same way they did to the disciples.  Our eyes will be open.  And here is what we will see…

We will see hope – that as we mentioned two weeks ago, our story is not finished. But it is more than that.  Everyone else’s stories aren’t finished either.  We are all these works in progress.  When we realize that we aren’t finished and that everyone else isn’t finished we begin to see something else…

We will see forgiveness.  We hear God crying out from the cross, “forgive them Lord, they do not know what they are doing.”  I think Jesus was talking about more than just the Romans.  He was talking about us too.  He was asking God to go easy on not just those that dealt him his injustice, but to all of us, as well, when we are less than perfect. God knows we are a work in progress.  God knows we aren’t done yet.  And when we come to this realization, how can we NOT forgive people when we know they aren’t finished yet either?  In this way we will be giving the same grace to others that is given to us by God.  This is not always easy.  There will be times we will see forgiveness as being only one thing….the next thing that I think Easter teaches us…

We will see miracles – but maybe not in the variety that we always hear about.  I think sometimes we can get too focused on the hocus pocus of Jesus, the turning water into wine, multiplying loaves of bread, and sight to the blind.  The problem is when we do that, someone will always come along and try to explain them away.  What if they were trying to represent a deeper truth?  What if the wine was meant to show the celebration and joy God can bring to our lives?  What if the multiplying loaves were meant to illustrate the abundance that life with God can bring? And what if sight to the blind was intended to show us how our own eyes can be opened when we put our faith and hope in God. What if the resurrection meant that we are to die to our old life and when we follow the practices of Christ, it is like we are born all over again and raised up to a higher level?

I also think miracles can be more subtle.  For some of you just sitting here in a worship service is a miracle.  The very fact that you are coming to a church is a miracle.  Some of you have been hurt so deeply, just getting up every day is a miracle.  I heard a preacher say once that a miracle is a shift in perception.  It is looking at things in a new and better way.  It is like putting on a pair of glasses that have been fit with special lenses.  When we look at the world through these lenses, we see hope as a miracle.  We see forgiveness as a miracle.  We see amazing outpouring of kindness as miracles.  In short, when we look at the world through these lenses, what we see is what the disciples saw…

We too will see Jesus in our midst - in every kind word or helpful gesture and in every listening ear.  We will see it in every dollar donated to others less fortunate, in every person that visits someone in the hospital or in prison.  We will see Jesus walking the streets, exactly as he did in the days that preceded the crucifixion AND the days that follow the execution. Jesus will be back among the people. We will see Jesus not just in the kind acts of others but we will see him in the faces of the needy and underserved.  In the prisoners we go to visit and the sick we go and comfort.  Jesus will be back among the people.  In this way Jesus WILL be alive again in our pumping lungs and beating hearts.  He will be with us two-fold, in us and in those we serve.   Easter means it is never too late for hope, never too late for mystery, never too late for miracles, never too late for change, never too late for us to have Jesus be an honest to goodness presence in our lives.  It is in this way that we will see Jesus as never before.

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Suffering and pain
Sixth in the Series: Where is God When It Hurts?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Mark 11: 8 – 10

⁸Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.  ⁹Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna!  Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!  ¹⁰Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Mark 15: 29 – 32

²⁹Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha!  You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰save yourself, and come down from the cross!”  ³¹In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.  ³²Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.”  Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

How quickly we change our mind.  Seeing these two passages back to back show us how quickly the public can turn.  But that is yet another sermon…

I think the one thing that I have heard, more than any other reason as to why people struggle with God, are the ideas and thoughts around suffering.  It usually starts with the sentence, “I don’t believe in God.  I can’t believe in any God that would allow…”  Then you can fill in any number of things: war, murder, child abuse, cancer, etc.  It is understandable.  We talk about having an all loving, all powerful God.

The argument has always been:

If God can prevent evil & suffering and doesn’t, God is not all loving.

If God can’t prevent evil & suffering, then God is not all powerful.

We know there is evil & suffering in the world.  Now there are people that will tell you that there is no REAL evil & suffering in the world, it just LOOKS like evil & suffering.  I don’t buy that.

There are others who say that without evil and suffering, there would be no good.  They are like yin and yang.  Those folks would tell you that suffering builds character.  I have to tell you that I think that is true….in some cases.  There are cases where suffering can be soul building and life giving.  Unfortunately, I think there is suffering that is soul crushing and life taking.  You only have to watch the news to see some pretty awful things going on in this world.

So I come down on the side that there is indeed evil and there is indeed suffering.  I also believe that God is all loving.  This leaves one thing: Letting go of God being all powerful.  I am willing to do that.  And here is the reason…Two Words: Free Will.  I think God could have had absolute and total power over this world but made a conscious decision NOT to FORCE us to love God.  The love of God and each other had to come freely.  God was willing to let go of total power so that we could love freely.  Unfortunately this meant we have the free will to not love and in fact do pretty awful things, which can lead to a chain reaction and more awful things. 

So we have suffering.  Now what?  I am reading a great book right now called, Getting the Blues: What Blues Music Teaches Us about Suffering & Salvation.  The book is by Stephen J. Nichols, a research professor of Christianity and Culture.  It profiles people like Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton and Son House (the latter two both had short stints as preachers).  The book follows up on James Cone’s debunking of the idea that spirituals are church music and the blues is the devils music.  Cone is an African American professor of systematic theology at Union Seminary.  He says the spirituals and the blues have more of a symbiotic relationship.   Granted, spirituals tell us about redemption and hope.  But the blues artists also talk about the ideas of exile and bondage, against a backdrop of hope, throughout their music.  The song goes:

They call it stormy Monday, but Tuesday’s just as bad.
Wednesday’s even worse, Thursday’s awful sad.
The eagle flies on Friday, and Saturday I go out to play.
Sunday I go to church where I kneel down and pray.

Nichols says that listening to the blues apart from its theology misses the blues altogether.  As Nichols points out, “the blues artist may have left the church, but the church, and especially the spirituals, hadn’t left them.”

The blues help us understand and embrace despair and longing and disappointment.  They help us get in touch with the feeling of estrangement…what fancy religion professors call alienation.  At the same time, the blues help us understand redemption and hope. 

Robert Johnson was arguably the most famous Delta Blues musician in the world.  He was famous for having sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for being able to play an amazing guitar.  He also had his share of sorrows including losing his first wife and child who died in child birth.  He sings about these things in Preaching Blues when he says, “Blues grabbed mama’s child; and it tore me all upside down.”  Johnson felt real pain.  In Crossroads Blues he sings, “Asked the Lord above have mercy; save poor Bob if you please.”  It was met with stony silence.  By the end of the song he sings, “I believe I’m sinking down.”  As Nichols puts it, “Johnson sang of the devil because he felt abandoned by God.”

Anyone ever feel like they are sinking down?  Anyone ever feel like their prayer has gone unanswered?  Anyone ever feel abandoned by God?

We see it all over the Bible, from Job to the Psalms to David.  No one can escape the blues and suffering.  Remember, David was God’s number one guy, and yet in Psalm 32:3 David cries out, “While I kept silent, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.”  Groaning all day long sounds like the blues to me…reminds me of Johnny Lee Hooker.

We heard about Jesus’ suffering and pain last week, His cries from the cross.  This has been a heavy Lenten series.  I got an email this week that said, “Jerry, loneliness, suffering, guilt, failure…jeez, when do we get back to the happy stuff?  Where is the more love, more laughs?”  I have to tell you that I was kind of feeling the same thing.  I told him it would make Easter seem that much better!  

There is some truth to that.  We watch how the world continued to push back on Jesus.  We watch Christ’s life go from bad to worse during the last week of his life.  Luther and Dietrich Bonhoeffer both said Christ came into this world and the world pushed Him away, all the way to the cross.  Remember when he cried out on the cross, “My God, my God?”  His cries were met with the same thing that Robert Johnson felt when he was at the cross…roads.  Silence.

I am the first person to understand that people have given up on the church.  We get a lot wrong.  Son House and Charley Patton gave up on the church as well, but they never gave up on God.  And their hope was that God didn’t give up on them.

I encourage you all to listen to some blues this week, particularly the Delta Blues.  Listen to the pain, listen to the suffering, and listen to the hurt.  Country music does this real well, too.  This week, don’t push away the pain.  Have a good cry and at the same time, know that this is not the end.

I’m here to tell you that God has not given up on you.  God DOES hear your cries.  God DOES hear your suffering.  God DOES hear your blues.  Put your suffering and pain at the bottom of the cross.  Give it all to God.  Know that we believe in a God that is big enough to handle ALL your pain and more.  We will see, by this time next week, that the story does not end with the pain.  The story does not end with the suffering.  The story does not end at the cross.  God’s story doesn’t end there…and neither does yours.

Next Sunday, we’ll show you how to beat the blues.  Hope to see you there.

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Loneliness
Fifth in the Series: Where is God When It Hurts?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Mark 14: 33–41  

³³He took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be distressed and agitated. ³⁴And he said to them, “I am deeply grieved, even to death; remain here, and keep awake.” ³⁵And going a little farther, he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. ³⁶He said, “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want.” ³⁷He came and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour? ³⁸Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” ³⁹And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words. ⁴⁰And once more he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy; and they did not know what to say to him. ⁴¹He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Enough! The hour has come; the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

Jesus’ story here in the garden of Gethsemane is familiar in some ways, even if you have never been there. Have you ever had those moments at night when you’ve gone to bed, when you are pouring your heart out to a roommate or a spouse or a partner and after you finished with a long, heartfelt monologue, you pause and hear….nothing. You realize they’ve fallen asleep on you. This is what has happened to Jesus…three times!

This was the beginning of a very lonely time for Jesus. In Matthew 26:31 Jesus tells his followers, “You will all become deserters because of me this night; for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered.’  This was Jesus’ place of deep loneliness.

The Hebrew word, “lonely,” translated in the Old Testament as “one alone, one who is solitary, forsaken, and wretched.”

Loneliness is painful and we are just beginning to understand its full affects.  It is a feeling many of us have had or are having and it’s ironic.  Lots of people suffer from it, but they aren’t together.  We're a lonely society.  

According to loneliness specialist, James J. Lynch, Ph.D., the author of, A Cry Unheard: New Insights into the Medical Consequences of Loneliness, twenty-five percent of American households consist of one person living alone; 50 percent of American marriages end in divorce; 30 percent of American births in 1991 were to unmarried women.  These factors are linked to an increased risk of premature death.  Lynch has spent almost four decades clarifying how loneliness contributes to an increased risk of developing heart disease.  He says, "Mortality rates in the United States for all causes of death, and not just for heart disease, are consistently higher for divorced, single, and widowed individuals of both sexes and all races.” 

Even with these statistics, we want to be careful not to confuse being alone with being lonely. I want to make clear that being alone, and being lonely, is not the same thing.  This might seem obvious to some but they are really not even close. Being alone is really all about your physical location. It doesn’t have anything to do with your feelings and can be measured. If there is no one around you, you are alone.

Being lonely has nothing to do with your physical location. I have felt amazingly lonely in crowded malls, airports, and even churches. How many people you have around has very little to do with whether somebody feels lonely or not.

Alone is a location. Lonely is a feeling.

Once we strip away how many people we have around us as a defining factor of loneliness, we realize that loneliness is one of those emotions that is very hard to detect in others. It is not always the loner who feels lonely. Being an introvert has little to do with being lonely. And the reverse is true, too. Extroverts, who love being around people, can easily be lonely.

Loneliness is feeling like other people don't care about you. You don't feel like you belong anywhere. No one understands how you feel and they don't care to get deep and personal with you. Do you ever feel like people don’t care about you? Or do you feel like you don’t belong anywhere? Do you ever have the feeling like you have lots of “acquaintances” but not many friends? I think this happens more and more the older we get. High School and college are great places to meet people and develop friendships but after you get out of school it is really hard to meet people. Church can be a great place…as long as we can drop the idea of feeling like we have to be “perfect people”…that just makes most of us feel even MORE alone…(look at all these perfect people…I have nothing in common with them!)

Jesus was about as perfect as you can get and yet he related to everyone. In fact he liked hanging out with you the LESS perfect you were.  Jesus knew these people had few options because they were the unloved. One of the evils of loneliness is the feeling that no one cares for you. Mother Teresa said, “The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved.” What we truly give to people down in Civic Center Park and at El Centro is a momentary break from loneliness.

There is a guy in Civic Park. Let’s call him Carl. Carl has been on and off the streets for five years. He helps unload the cars and sometimes helps hand out the food and water.  He likes being around and talking with us. I asked him if he knew a lot of the guys but he said he keeps to himself a lot…there are a lot of bad elements out there on the street so he prefers to keep to himself. That is a lonely life. It’s hard enough being invisible, as most homeless are. It’s harder still to be invisible, ALONE.

Which brings us back again to Jesus. Remember, at the beginning of Holy week, Jesus’ last week alive? He rides in on a donkey and people are waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” He was like Bono or Clooney or Obama.  Everyone loved him. By week’s end, the crowd had scattered, the cheering stopped, the friends disappeared, the authorities closed in, and Jesus hung on a cross…alone. Talk about a bad week?

At this moment in time we hear Jesus crying out, “My God my God, why have you forsaken me?” Now some scholars say this is Jesus at his most human, his moment of saying, “God, why have you left me? I am now totally alone.” Others say that it was Jesus starting the beginning of Psalm 22 which begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But ENDS with words of hope and promise, “To him indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down…future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn.”  The yet unborn people are you and me.  This might look bad at first glance, but when we look harder, we can often find something deeper.

I can be guilty of this. I am one of those people who like to stay busy. The problem with staying busy is that there is very little time to look at things deeper. That is why we take two minutes of silence during our time together. It is a deliberate time to slow down. When we first started doing that, it drove me crazy.  

While I was in seminary we went to a Buddhist temple here in Denver. Part of the “field trip” was to meditate with the monks in complete silence….for an hour. I thought my head would explode. The truth is though, after I started, I found I relaxed into it and almost…dare I say, enjoyed it. 

Our job, like Mother Teresa’s, is to help alleviate the suffering of others whenever we can.  Part of the way we do this is to do what Jesus told the disciples to do, keep awake.  Some versions say, “Keep Watch.” We are to stay alert to each other’s needs. I know it is safe to say that there are people right in this room who have felt deep, deep loneliness, some as recent as today. Remember, we are the hands and feet…and ears, of Christ.  We are here to help alleviate the loneliness of others.

If we are the ones feeling lonely, we need to remember two things.

One, we need to reach out whenever we can and have the strength and be okay with sharing with other people the fact that we are lonely. The world is full of good people who do want to help, who do want to listen. Some of the kindest people I know are right here in this room. Reach out to them…they will be there for you.

The second is that God is there for you. God hears your pain. God hears your loneliness and God IS with you. Even though it might not feel that way sometimes…and believe me, I know sometimes it doesn’t, God is still right there beside you. That’s a promise throughout the Bible. We see it in Deuteronomy and in Isaiah and in the Psalms and in Hebrews.  We see it in the Gospels. The very last line of Matthew, Jesus’ parting words, makes us that promise. Jesus tells us, ". . .And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Last week we heard it from The Apostle Paul telling us that nothing can separate us from God. This week we have the words from Jesus himself. God does not break promises.  

No matter how lonely you might feel, no matter how dark the night is in your Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus is right there with you, and he will never leave you to face your fears and loneliness alone. 

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Failure
Fourth in the Series: Where is God When It Hurts?

By Rev. Jerry Herships

Luke 24: 17-21

¹⁷And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. ¹⁸Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” ¹⁹He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, ²⁰and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. ²¹But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place.

One of the ways I prepare for these talks is to read things from a wide variety of places. I will often do this reading while working out at the gym. I know I will get at least 4-5 hours of reading in that way AND it takes my mind off doing something that I don’t particularly enjoy doing….if you are one of those people that loves to workout…gets that “runners high”…well….good for you. That isn’t me. 

This week I am reading a book about the move from ambition to meaning in our life. It talks about how we often will let other people’s opinions of us decide how WE feel about ourselves. One of the ways we “keep score” to win someone’s popular opinion of us is to have more. More of everything…more stuff, more money, more accomplishments. Part of me thinks, are we really that shallow a people?  

As I was thinking this I glanced at the Vanity Fair I had brought with me to read while I worked out.  The cover has Michael Douglas and is titled, It’s Still About Greed and … Money – so much for the high ground. Society tells us the measuring sticks are out there and if you don’t hit a certain mark…you failed.

Failure. Wow. I feel like I have a deep, deep understanding of this topic. Hollywood teaches you very fast that there are going to be winners and losers and, without question, there are going to be more losers than winners. They tell you that at commercial auditions, those auditions where you are trying to sell Kleenex or laundry detergent, the average actor will audition between 60 -70 times before he or she can expect to land a part. Keep in mind this is not to get a sitcom or a movie. This is to hock power tools for Sears. For every person who gets a commercial…dozens and dozens of people fail.

The regular job market is not that different these days. For every job out there, there are sometimes hundreds of applicants. I know very smart, very competent, very business savvy people who have been out of work for months. It is enough to wear down our healthy self-esteem and make us feel at times like failures.

We sometimes don’t even need to leave the house to feel this way. Has anyone ever been on a diet?  Ever workout like crazy and eat all the right things and then get on the scale and realize you didn’t lose a pound? Or worse…you GAINED weight? Been there, done that.

So with all this potential failure in our lives, what are we to do? We can try to spin it positively like Oscar Wilde and say that experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. Or we can take more of a pessimistic stance like Samuel Goldwyn who said, “You’ve got to take the bitter with the sour.” I think I’ll go with the Oscar Wilde, but in our darkest hour, where do we turn? Well, as you can probably guess, my suggestion would be God.

It is not like there are no examples in the Bible of people who have failed …or at least been perceived as failures. We need to be careful not to make too quick a judgment when we read the Bible…or look in the mirror, about who is and isn’t a failure.

Actually the Bible has a number of people who failed in a number of ways. Adultery, murder, pride, greed, deception…and that’s just in Genesis! I think the first thing to remember is that no matter how much these people screwed up; no matter how lousy their character, no matter how much they “failed” in the way they lived their lives…God still loves them. We are reminded of Paul’s words that nothing can get between us and God’s love. We can do NOTHING to separate us from God’s love. God knows some of the folks in the Bible tried. Nothing worked. We are stuck with God’s love.

Another thing we need to remember is that some of the things that we use to measure success and failure, God could care less about. Most of the things that we many times tend to value, God could not give two widows mites for. God does not value our fame or what is in our money clips or the title on our business cards…or even if we have business cards. They are all things of this world and the more we continue to put too much value on them the more we will look to the scoreboard, feel like we are losing and label ourselves a failure.  

Perspectives are an interesting thing. I went to the Global Rich List, www.globalrichlist.com, website the other day. It reminds us that we so often compare ourselves to others, but they are usually the others who are doing better than we are. I punched in my salary…just south of $49k and hit the button called “show me the money.”  It told me that at 48,800, I am in the top 1% richest people in the world. Huh?  Judging from what the world tells me…I’ve always felt like I should be doing better, that I have almost been, dare I say it, a failure.  

Who and what we compare ourselves to can affect how we view ourselves. Michael Jordan is one of the greatest basketball players of all times and yet he has said that he has missed more than 9,000 shots in his career. He said he has lost almost 300 games. Walt Disney’s first animation studio went bankrupt. Are they successes or failures? We need to be careful what measuring stick we use to make our assessments of ourselves and others.

Another thing is to be careful we don’t put a period where God has put a comma….(yes I’ve had that on a magnet on my refrigerator.) But it’s true. Too often we think just because something is not NOW, we think it is not EVER.

That brings us to our Bible reading. The story we are reading about tonight is the story of the Walk to Emmaus. The village of Emmaus is still unidentified. Some scholars say it is about seven miles from Jerusalem and others say it is as far away as nineteen miles. What is important is what we hear the disciples say to Jesus and their mood.  

Verse 17 tells us Jesus asks what appears to be the innocent question, “So, What ya talkin’ ‘bout?”  That verse goes on to say, “they stood still looking sad.” YA THINK?!?!? This has got to be one of the worst days of their lives. The Disciples decided years before to drop whatever it was they were doing…fishing in the family business with their dad, collecting taxes, trying to overthrow Rome. Instead they decided to take a chance on this guy, this guy that they had given up EVERYTHING FOR.  Everything. They left their jobs, their families, and their future. They put their total trust in him. And, for what? It is sometimes easy for us to forget what a moment in time like this must have felt like because we can flip to the end of the story and see that it has a happy ending, but at this point in time the disciples can’t see how the story ends.

They felt that Jesus was it. He was the power that could change the world. And he failed. Remember that the power that was in Jesus is in each and every one of us. And that power NEVER fails. Just because you feel you have failed does not mean you’ve had a power failure. God’s power never goes away.  

In verse 21 we see them saying, “we had HOPED that he was the one to redeem Israel.” Implied in this verse is the idea that they are thinking, “…but we were wrong.” At this point in the story, they feel that not only are they failures, but Jesus was, too. They think it is the end of the story.  

But we know different. Don’t we do that with our own stories?  Don’t we put a period where God has put a comma?  No matter where we are in our story…we still don’t know how the story ends! The irony of this story is that how they think the story is going and how it is actually going is right in front of their eyes. They think that Jesus has failed and gone and yet….JESUS IS RIGHT THERE WITH THEM. It is the same way with us. Even though we might feel like we have failed…JESUS IS RIGHT HERE WITH US.

 Sometimes I think it is our own expectations that are our biggest enemies. It’s when our actual life doesn’t match up with the ideal of our life that we start to think we are less than. When life doesn’t live out the script that we wrote for it, we often start to think we are failures. I realized that for years, I didn’t let God help me write the rough draft of my life. Without God as your script partner, the odds of your life being a hit go way down. When we let God help us write our life story, we focus more on the now and the moment we are in. When we do this, act two takes care of itself.  

I have spent so much of my life worrying about how “this now” is going to effect “that later.” In the process, many times it ruined the now, which in turn, ruined the later that I had set up for myself. I EXPECTED these things now to lead to my ideal and when they didn’t, I thought: failure. We have to cease expectations and live more in the moment. When we do, tomorrows are much more likely to take care of themselves. 

How will your story end? Remember that your definition of failure is probably very different that God’s. Remember that whether you “fail” or not, it has absolutely no effect on God’s love for you. Remember that you are still in the middle of your story and when you stop focusing so much on how it will end and focus instead, on being in the moment, the odds of your story having a happy ending go way up. Remember it is impossible for you to have a power failure when you tap into God’s power and let God help you write the script.

How will your story end?

You will just have to keep reading and living your story, knowing that God walks right along beside you and because of that you need to know that the story is not over and that it is going to have an amazing ending.

Sunday, March 07, 2010

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

By Kyle Lewis

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 17^th 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, 1^st 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 20^th 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 20^th 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 16^th 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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 1^st 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