05-20-2012 Youth Sunday homily by Libby Volna

THE NARROW WAY

Matthew 7:13-14

“You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell (the road that leads to destruction) is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.”

The Narrow Way, it is not easily found, obtained, or traveled. Nor is it always chosen. This “narrow way” is the key to our salvation. This journey in finding the narrow way will be more challenging and difficult than we can even begin to measure.  As modern day people we are easily given the answer to our problems. Even if we have a challenge, the solution is close enough to reach our fingertips. In this case, our solution is not easy enough to just reach our fingertips, nor even measurable.

Let me ask you this. How many of you have cats? You know those long strands of coarse hair billowing off their cheeks, whiskers. Well they are not just for show; whiskers play a key role in a cat’s life. Whiskers provide balance for the cat, sending nerves in and out the tips and back to the nervous system.  They also help detect the width of an opening. When a cat approaches a small enclosed space that is too small, their whiskers send little nerves to their brain letting them know they will not fit. This is similar to our journey to our salvation, except instead of sporting whiskers on our cheeks, we have Jesus Christ. Jesus helps us through every opening, no matter the size. The only difference between our situation and the cat’s situation is that they may not fit through the narrowest path, but with the power and strength of Jesus Christ within us, we can.

We live in a world that is constantly telling us what we can and can’t do. Yes, we are given limitations after limitations after limitations. At some point in your life you will have experienced the wrath of high school. High school can be a great place, full of knowledge, wisdom, and many great experiences, but is the central source of limitations spiritually. As of the 1960’s, religion and public schooling took a spin and somehow ended on opposite poles. This makes no sense, how something as powerful as faith could be scratched from the grasp of our education system. What is learning without growth and faith in Christ? Nowadays, teens rarely go to church or are even exposed to Christianity. The word “God” is rarely even spoken within the walls of school. Students spend large parts of their waking hours in school having to keep faith under the wraps. Church is not considered cool by many unchurched teens, making Christian teens feel uncomfortable wearing a cross around their neck through the hallways. Seven and a half hours a day, seven and a half hours of long, grueling hours that are expected to be spent without God. Without God, that high school hallway is going to be broader, wider, and easier to pass through, making school effortless and carefree. But with God, that hallway is going to be narrower than ever, and the climb through high school will be very rocky. It seems as though all these things are all working against us, but in the end you’ll look down at the view and realize all your time climbing has been well spent.

 

06-03-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

LIVING THIS SIDE OF THE CROSS: PART V

    Soren Kierkegaard was a 19^th century Danish philosopher.  He once told a story about a couple of thieves who broke into a jewelry store one night, but who did not steal a thing.  Instead, they rearranged the price tags.  Thus, the next morning, worthless jewelry was sold at a very high price…while priceless jewelry was sold for next to nothing.  The point he was trying to make is that we live in a world where culture has rearranged the price tags on human beings.

    Perhaps nowhere is this switching of price tags more evident than in the realm of self-esteem.  In our culture today, for example, people are valued for how they look, for how far they can hit a baseball, or even for their material possessions.  Rarely are they valued for who they really are. 

    This issue of self-esteem tends to have particularly devastating consequences in the lives of young adults.  Young men perform outrageous, life-threatening deeds just to prove to someone that they are a man.  Young women get involved in unhealthy, even self-destructive relationships…because they believe they are nothing unless they abide by the expectations of their peers.  The question now is: Who puts the price tag on the value of a human being: culture…or God?  You see, when you know what you’re really worth, your life somehow changes.  When you know what you’re really worth, your values are transformed.  Keep that thought in mind as we move on. 

    This is the fifth in a series of sermons entitled, Living This Side of the Cross.  The thesis of the series is pretty much summed up in verses 14 and 15 in the 4^th chapter of the book of Ephesians.  There the Apostle Paul writes, “We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head…into Christ Jesus, our Lord.”  In other words, this is a sermon series on growing up in Christ.

    Five weeks ago, we talked about how the church is meant to represent the kingdom of God on earth.  We said that the kingdom is here…but not fully here.  Thus, could it be that the church we have is exactly what God intended when he created the church?  Could it be that the church we have provides the very conditions necessary for growing up in Christ?  While we live in a throw-away society these days, perhaps there are some things we shouldn’t throw away.  After all, the providence of God means that wherever we have gotten to – whatever we have done – that is precisely where the road to heaven begins.

    Four weeks ago we talked about living a worthy life.  A worthy life – a life that is truly growing up in Christ – is a life formed in community.  Christian maturity develops as we form friendships with the friends of God…not just the friends we prefer.  You see, God chooses to act and intervene in the world through us.  We see God acting in the world today when we witness the heartfelt convictions of those who serve him.

    Last week we encountered Paul’s roadmap through the cosmos.  As Christians, we are blessed by God, chosen in Christ, destined for adoption, bestowed grace, lavished redemption and forgiveness, made to know the will of God through Christ, and gathered up to God in the end.  We are precious children of God – created in the image of God – and destined for eternal life.  Do not let anyone ever tell you otherwise.

    In the passage we read from the book of Ephesians today, Paul begins by saying, “I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and your love toward all the saints.”  Your love toward all the saints?  Who are these saints to whom Paul refers?  Let me say, first of all, that they are not a professional football team from New Orleans.  Nor are they people who have been venerated by the Pope in Rome.  The saints to whom Paul refers are average, ordinary, faith-filled Christians. 

    The word “saint” itself literally means, “holy one.”  The word “saint” is actually Paul’s word of choice for the people of God – men and women who follow the way of Jesus Christ.  Paul uses the word “saint” to describe the people of God nine times in the book of Ephesians.  It wasn’t until many years later that the word “Christian” came to supplant the word “saint” as the common designation for the people of God.  In fact, the word “Christian” only occurs three times in the entire New Testament, and not once in Paul’s writings.  As time went on, the word “saint” came to designate only outstanding Christians.  Eventually it was even further restricted to persons officially designated, after rigorous examination, to a kind of spiritual hall of fame.  The early usage of the word “saint” as depicted in the Apostles’ Creed – you know, “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints” – the early usage of the word “saint” is all but lost to our modern-day vernacular.  

    Yet Paul refers to us as saints.  Paul refers to us as holy ones.  Paul deliberately chooses a word that identifies us not by what we do for God, but rather, by what God does in and for us.  He is retraining our imaginations to understand ourselves not in terms of how we feel about ourselves, and not in terms of how others feel about us, but rather…he is retraining our imaginations to understand how God feels about us.  In God’s eyes, we are saints.  In God’s eyes, we are holy ones.

    So let’s go back to Soren Kierkegaard’s price tag analogy.  Culture says that you are a collection of cells that evolved from a monkey.  Now don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying anything against evolution here.  We’re not talking about how we came into being.  We’re talking about the value of a human being.  Culture says that you are a collection of cells that evolved from a something else.  Well, if that’s the case, then why not live for the moment?  Why not engage in promiscuity for the thrill of it all?  Why not step on whoever we have to step on in order to get ahead?  After all, if we are nothing more than a collection of cells, then life must solely be about what I can glean from it.  Ladies and gentlemen, culture has put a very low price tag on the human being.

    God says you are a saint.  God says you are a holy one.  God says you are of infinite worth.  How does that affect your values?  Suddenly, life isn’t solely about what I can glean from it, is it?  Now, perhaps, the value of life is life itself…and how I might serve the One who created me.  Therefore, I ask you now: Does God exist to serve us, or do we exist to serve God?  Get the answer to that question wrong…and you’re never going to get any of the rest of it right either.  The price tag God puts on us is very high.  Don’t let culture switch the price tags.

    After designating the people of God as saints, the Apostle Paul goes on to tell them that he is praying for them.  Have you ever thought about how much that means?  What does it mean to you when someone says, “I’m praying for you?” Of course, I remember in seminary when I once got into a theological disagreement with someone.  In my mind, I was winning…because at the end of the conversation he said to me, “I’ll pray for you!”  I wanted to say, “No!  Don’t pray for me! I don’t want God to make me think like you!”  But seriously, what does it mean to you when someone says, “I’m praying for you?”  It means a great deal, does it not?

    The Apostle Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus.  He prayed to God that God might give them five things.  The five things were: wisdom and revelation, an enlightened heart, hope, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of his power.  The five things Paul prayed for the church in Ephesus, he prays for us as well.  These are the things the saints can expect to receive from God: wisdom and revelation, an enlightened heart, hope, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of his power.  As Paul notes, they come not because of some great accomplishment on our parts.  They come through what God achieved in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ.  The shame of it all is that there are people these days who fail to see that…and who suffer the consequences of it.

    I’m going to tell you two quick stories now that I think will make what I’m trying to say a little bit more clear.  The first story is about an out-of-town couple that recently came to me and asked me to perform their wedding.  They wanted a civil ceremony.  They wanted no mention of Jesus Christ at all.  Jesus Christ was not a part of their lives and they did not want him to have a part in their wedding either.

    While we were talking, I noticed a series of numbers tattooed up the bride’s left arm.  Not being particularly shy, I asked her what they were meant to represent.  She said, “These are the death dates of four of my good friends.”  I said, “I am so sorry.  How did they die?”  She replied, “Two died from cancer…and two committed suicide.”  Do you sense a certain irony here?  The bride and her friends refused the gifts God gives in Jesus Christ – wisdom and revelation, an enlightened heart, HOPE, the riches of his glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of his power – and a couple of them felt that the only way to escape their problems…was suicide.

    Contrast that story with a story I want to tell you about our own Julia Marshall.  Julia Marshall was born in 1914. She had a Ph.D. in psychology. She taught at colleges and universities all across the country.  She used to sit right in front of me here in the sanctuary, nearly every Sunday morning.  She wasn’t able to stand for the hymns, but she sat there and sang every one of them without even opening a book.  I think she knew every hymn in the hymnal by heart.  Julia Marshall was a woman of deep faith.  She died on the 6^th of April.

    I went to see her in the hospital shortly before she died.  She was having a wonderful day and we had a terrific conversation.  In fact, she told me something that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.  The next day, however, she took a sudden turn for the worse.  When I went to see her, she had an oxygen mask over her face and I was having a hard time understanding her.  She said to me, “I want to go home.”  I said, “You want to go home?”  She said, “I want to go home,” as she pointed toward the sky.  And it wasn’t long…before she did.

    God gives gifts to his saints thanks to what he accomplished in the person of Jesus Christ.  Of course, they matter in the life to come.  But as I think you can clearly see…they matter in this lifetime as well.  Amen.

 

05-27-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

LIVING THIS SIDE OF THE CROSS: PART IV

    A good friend of mine passed away last week.  He was only 43 years old.  He leaves behind a wife and three children – a son in college, a son in high school, and a daughter still in elementary school.  He was diagnosed a few months ago with a highly treatable form of leukemia, and seemed to be on the road to recovery.  Then, something went terribly wrong.  He died in the hospital, surrounded by his family, on Tuesday afternoon.

    We have come, these days, to not expect such calamitous things to happen.  So many previously deadly diseases are now treatable.  Life expectancy seems to increase every year.  We all expect to live to a ripe old age.  So when such things do happen, we find ourselves at a loss for words.  We grieve deeply, and then we begin to question God.  “How can a loving God allow such things to happen?” we wonder.  “Why do bad things happen to good people…like us?”

    If any one of us takes the time to take stock of our lives, we will find that a great number of things have gone wrong.  Illness and injuries set us back.  Children don’t turn out quite the way we planned.  A husband or a wife turns out not to be who we thought they were.  The economy collapses and we wonder how we’re going to survive our golden years.  These are not things we typically bargain for, and when we believe we are following Jesus Christ, we expect them even less.  So when they do happen, our faith tends to falter.  “How can a loving God allow such things to happen?” we wonder.  “Why do bad things happen to good people…like us?”  Keep that thought in mind as we move on. 

    This is the fourth in a series of sermons entitled, Living This Side of the Cross.  The thesis of the series is pretty much summed up in verses 14 and 15 in the 4^th chapter of the book of Ephesians.  There the Apostle Paul writes, “We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head…into Christ Jesus our Lord.”  In other words, this is a sermon series on growing up in Christ.

    Four weeks ago, we talked about how the church is meant to represent the kingdom of God on earth.  We said that the kingdom is here…but not fully here.  Thus, could it be that the church we have is exactly what God intended when he created the church?  Could it be that the church we have provides the very conditions necessary for growing up in Christ?  While we live in a throwaway society these days, perhaps there are some things we shouldn’t throw away.  After all, the providence of God means that wherever we have gotten to – whatever we have done – that is precisely where the road to heaven begins.

    Three weeks ago we talked about living a worthy life.  A worthy life – a life that is truly growing up in Christ – is a life formed not in isolation, but rather, in community.  Christian maturity develops as we form friendships with the friends of God…not just the friends we prefer.  You see, God chooses to act and intervene in the world through us.  We see God acting in the world today when we witness the heartfelt convictions of those who serve him.

    A man named Walter Percy wrote six novels in which he made us insiders to the sense of alienation that he found so pervasive in American culture.  His name for this condition was, “lost in the cosmos.”  In other words, from a spiritual perspective, we don’t know who we are.  We don’t know where we came from, and we don’t know where we’re going.  We are lost in the cosmos.  This tends to be particularly true when things go wrong in our lives.  So Walter Percy wrote his novels to wake us up to our desperate condition, and to set up a few signposts to help us find our way.

    Believe it or not, the Apostle Paul knew a little bit about being lost in the cosmos as well, although he certainly would not have used those words.  Yet Paul also tries to wake us up to our desperate condition, and to set up a few signposts to help us find our way.  Paul does so, however, by providing an extensive witness to how God works in the world.

    In the passage I read from the book of Ephesians, for example, it all begins with God.  Paul fires off seven strong verbs that illuminate God’s way of working with us in the world.  The verbs are: blessed, chose, destined, bestowed, lavished, made known, and gather.  Let’s begin with the verb “blessed,” because I think that’s where our real questions lie.  After all, when we take stock of our lives, we find that a great number of things have gone wrong.  How blessed are we, really?

    In verse 3 Paul writes, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.”  That’s two “blesseds” and one “blessing” in a single sentence.  The Greek word for bless is eulogia.  We derive the word “eulogy” from this word.  Eulogia literally means, “a benefit bestowed by God in Christ.”  Yet there are times when we don’t feel very blessed, are there not?  Could it be that this is simply a matter of perspective?  Listen to this.

    A group of students was once asked to list what they thought were the present-day Seven Wonders of the World.  Though there were some mild disagreements, the following things received the most votes: 1) Egypt’s Great Pyramids, 2) The Taj Mahal, 3) The Grand Canyon, 4) The Panama Canal, 5) The Empire State Building, 6) St. Peter’s Basilica and 7) The Great Wall of China.

    After gathering the votes, the teacher noticed that one student had not yet finished her list.  So she asked the girl if she was having any trouble.  The girl replied, “Yes, a little.  I couldn’t quite make up my mind because there are so many.”  The teacher said, “Well, tell us what you have, and maybe we can help.”  The girl hesitated, then said, “I think the Seven Wonders of the World are: to see, to hear, to touch, to taste, to feel, to laugh and to love.”

    The room was so quiet you could’ve heard a pin drop.  Perhaps the Seven Wonders of the World are things we overlook as simple and ordinary…and often take for granted.  Perhaps the same could be said about our blessings from God.  If we could learn to dwell on the good things we have – instead of on the things we don’t – perhaps we would begin to see that.  We are indeed blessed by God.

    So first, Paul says that God blesses us.  He goes on to say that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him.  God destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ.  God bestowed grace upon us through the person of his Son. God lavished redemption and forgiveness according to the richness of his grace.  God made known to us the mystery of his will through our relationship with Jesus Christ.  And finally, God gathers up all things to him in Christ.

    There it is: your roadmap through the cosmos.  As Christians, we are blessed by God…chosen in Christ, destined for adoption, bestowed grace, lavished redemption and forgiveness, made to know the will of God through Christ, and gathered up to God in the end.  You are a precious child of God – created in the image of God – and destined for eternal life.  Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise.  Thus, there remains but one thing left for us to do.  We must receive it.  We must receive God’s gift to us in Christ.  But how?

    On a blustery autumn day, a young man named Bryan Anderson came across an elderly woman standing beside her car on an old country road.  He pulled up behind her brand-new Mercedes Benz in his rusty, old pickup truck and asked her if she needed help.  Yet even with the smile on his face, the elderly woman looked frightened.  No one had even passed by – let alone, stopped to offer help – for over an hour.  And this man looked tired, poor and hungry.  “Was he going to hurt her?” she wondered.

    The young man could see that she was frightened.  He said to her, “I’m just here to help you, ma’am.”  Noticing that her left rear tire was flat, he said to her, “Why don’t you just wait in the car where it’s warm?  I’ll take care of this tire for you.”

    So the woman got into the car while the young man crawled under it and looked for a place to set the jack.  He got the job done – skinning his knuckles a time or two in the process, and getting pretty dirty.  As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him.  She told him that she was from Philadelphia, and was only passing through.  She could not thank him enough for his kindness. 

    The young man just smiled as he put away the jack and closed the trunk.  The woman then asked how much she owed him.  Any amount would have been all right with her.  She had already imagined the terrible things that could have happened to her had he not stopped.  But this was not a chore to the young man.  This was helping someone in need.  God knows, there were plenty of people who’d helped him out in the past.  He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to live it any other.

    He told her that if she really wanted to pay him, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed.  Then he added, “And think of me – Bryan Anderson.”  He waited until she started her car and drove off.  It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home. 

    A few miles down the road, that elderly woman stopped at a small café for a bite to eat.  It was a dingy-looking restaurant, but it was the only place in town.  The woman went in and sat down, and the waitress brought a clean towel over so she could wipe down her wet hair.  The waitress had a sweet smile – one that even being on her feet the whole day could not erase.  The woman also noticed that the waitress was pregnant – very pregnant.  The woman was touched by the waitress’s kindness…and then she remembered Bryan Anderson.

    After the woman finished her meal, she paid the tab with a one hundred dollar bill.  The waitress went to get change for the woman, but by the time she got back, the woman was gone.  Then she noticed something written on the napkin.  It said, “You don’t owe me anything.  I have been where you are.  Somebody once helped me the way that I am helping you.  If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.  And under the napkin, the waitress found four more crisp one hundred dollar bills.

    Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill and people to serve…but the waitress made it through another day.  That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about what the woman had written.  How could she have known how badly she and her husband needed it? With bills to pay and the baby due next month, it was going to be really tight.

    She knew how worried her husband had been about expenses.  As she crawled into bed and he lay sleeping next to her, she whispered in his ear, “Everything’s going to be all right.  I love you, Bryan Anderson.”

    The issue at hand was receiving the grace of God.  The question was, “How do we do that?”  Maybe the way to receive God’s grace…is to simply pass it on.  Amen.

 

05-06-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

LIVING THIS SIDE OF THE CROSS: PART III

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer was an early 20^th century German theologian. He was educated at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and rose to become President of a theological seminary in Germany while he was in his early thirties. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a brilliant scholar.  He was also morally outraged by the tyranny of Adolph Hitler.  In fact, he was so upset by the atrocities committed by Adolph Hitler that he actually became involved in a plot to assassinate him.  The plot failed, and Bonhoeffer was arrested by the Gestapo.  He was executed a mere 23 days before Germany’s surrender in World War II.

    On that day – April 9^th, 1945 – a fellow inmate wrote: “Pastor Bonhoeffer held a little worship service that touched the hearts of all.  He had hardly finished his closing prayer when the cell door burst open. Two evil-looking soldiers came in and barked, ‘Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us.’  The words meant only one thing…the scaffold.  But as Pastor Bonhoeffer bid us goodbye, there was a light in his eyes.  He said, ‘For me, this is the beginning of a new life – eternal life.’”

    Like I said, Dietrich Bonhoeffer had a brilliant theological mind.  During his 24 months in prison he continued to work out his theological convictions.  In what was then referred to as the modern era, the consensus among theologians was that God had been pushed to the gaps of human existence.  In other words, God was only relevant in places where human logic and sound reasoning failed.  Why, it was almost as if God was being kept offstage in the play of human drama – until all was apparently lost – and then only lowered into the fray on stage in order to solve the unsolvable and explain the inexplicable.  According to the best theological minds of the day, God had been pushed to the gaps of human existence.

    Bonhoeffer wrote, “It is wrong to use God as a stopgap for the incompleteness of our knowledge.  We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t.  God wants us to realize his presence not in unsolved problems, but in those that are solved.”  What he proposed was what he called a “religionless” Christianity – a faith that looks for God in what we know, and not in what we don’t.

    Bonhoeffer’s reflections raise many important theological questions.  By no means did he deny that God has acted and continues to act in human history.  But he did reject the notion that God’s activity is only to be found in the mysteries of human existence.  Yet if God is not to be found only in the gaps – if God is not the hypothesis we only use to explain what reason cannot – does that mean that God does not intervene in human history at all?  What, then, does the Christian faith mean when it affirms that God acts or intervenes in the world as we know it?  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    This is the third in a series of sermons entitled, Living This Side of the Cross.  The thesis of the first sermon was pretty much summed up in verses 14 and 15 in the 4^th chapter of the book of Ephesians.  There the Apostle Paul writes, “We must no longer be children tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine. But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head…into Christ Jesus our Lord.”  In other words, this is a sermon series on growing up in Christ.

    Last week we talked about how the church is meant to represent the kingdom of God on earth.  We said that the kingdom is here, but not fully here.  Could it be that the church we have is exactly what God intended when he created the church?  Could it be that the church we have provides the very conditions necessary for growing up in Christ?  While we live in a throw-away society these days, perhaps there are some things we shouldn’t throw away.  After all, the providence of God means that wherever we have gotten to – whatever we have done – that is precisely where the road to heaven begins.

    It is generally believed that Paul wrote the book of Ephesians while he was in prison in Rome.  As it says in verse 1 of chapter 4, “I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”  Perhaps the first question, then, is this: What does it mean to lead a worthy life? 

    Allow me to begin by citing the work of a great Methodist theologian by the name of John Wesley.  He taught what is now referred to as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral.  Although John Wesley never used the word “quadrilateral” himself, the Wesleyan Quadrilateral was nevertheless inferred from his work.  He taught that we lead a worthy life by building on the foundations of Scripture, tradition, reason and experience.  In other words, we base our decisions in life first on what the Scriptures say, second on what our tradition teaches, third on what our reason infers, and finally on what our experience tells us.  Scripture, tradition, reason, experience…in that order.

    My theory is that, these days, we have reversed the order.  We base our decisions in life first on what our own experience tells us.  Then we might consider reason.  Since we don’t really know what our tradition teaches, and now that biblical illiteracy is rampant, we hardly consider them at all.  How can we lead a worthy life if we don’t even know what a worthy life is?

    The Greek word Paul uses for worthy is axios.  An axios is literally a set of balancing scales; the kind of scales formed by a crossbeam balanced on a post, with pans suspended from each end of the crossbeam.  For example, you place a one-pound weight in one pan, and then measure out flour in the other pan, until the two pans are in balance.  Balance means to be in equilibrium.  So does a worthy life.  A worthy life is a life lived in equilibrium.

    The question now is: What are the two things that need to be in balance?  Paul says to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.  Therefore, perhaps the two things that need to be in balance are these: God’s call…and our walk of faith.  Again, the two things that need to be in balance are God’s call, and our walk of faith.  For you see, when God’s call and our walk of faith balance…then we are truly growing up in Christ.

    A man who is probably the best preacher I’ve ever heard graduated from Wooster College in the early 1970s.  He became the senior minister at a large Presbyterian church in New Jersey while he was still in his twenties.  Trust me, that doesn’t happen very often.  About ten years later, he became the senior minister at one of the largest Presbyterian churches in the country, the Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas.  Not long after that, he became the senior minister at the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in downtown New York City…one of the most prestigious pulpits in the world.

    That sounds like a man who was leading a balanced life, does it not?  He was clearly balancing God’s call upon his life with his own walk of faith...and with a great deal of success, I might add.  Then he hooked up with a seminary intern who was working at his church.  He lost his wife, he lost his family, he lost his church, and he lost his ordination to the ministry.  Then the husband of the woman with whom he had the affair sued him for a million dollars…and the church for three million more.  That’s what can happen when God’s call and our walk of faith fall out of balance.   

    God calls us to serve him, and then God equips us with the gifts we need to serve.  For example, I think of a woman who was appalled by the fact that there are so many couples who are not raising their children in the church.  Young people who grew up in the church now have nothing to do with it, and thus, their own kids have nothing to do with it either.  So she formed a group that gets together to pray for those kids – some of whom are their grandchildren.  The group is called Grandmas in Prayer.  And if God doesn’t listen to grandmas in prayer, I suspect he doesn’t listen to anyone.

    I think of another woman who was appalled by the fact that the high school no longer held baccalaureate services for graduating seniors.  So she formed a committee out of the high school’s senior council members to bring back the baccalaureate service.  She involved her husband as an advisor to the senior council, and she involved me as a member of the Meadville Area Ministerial Association.  Since her husband and I are both afraid to tell her no, we agreed to take part in the cause as well.  The baccalaureate service has been growing every year for the past 8 years.  Like I said, God calls us to serve him, and then God equips us with the gifts we need to serve.  This applies to each and every one of us.  And by the way, in case you were wondering, the word “retirement” is not in the Bible.   

    There is a catch, however.  God calls us to serve him, and then God equips us with the gifts we need to serve.  Note that I said, “God calls US,” and, “God equips US.”  In other words, this is not just a conversation between God and me.  Jesus is more than my personal savior.  This is a conversation God wants to hold with each and every one of us.  Thus, a worthy life – a life that is truly growing up in Christ – is a life formed in community.  Christian maturity develops as we form friendships with the friends of God…not just the friends we prefer.  In other words, if we are to grow up in Christ, we have to do it in the company of others who are responding to the call of God as well.  Whether we happen to like them or not…has absolutely nothing to do with it.

    Now back to the questions Dietrich Bonhoeffer posed at the beginning of this sermon.  He said, “It is wrong to use God as a stopgap for the incompleteness of our knowledge.  We are to find God in what we know, not in what we don’t.”  The question was, “What, then, does the Christian faith mean when it affirms that God acts or intervenes in the world as we know it?” 

    I think the answer to that question…is us.  God chooses to act and intervene in the world through us.  In fact, that may be the most convincing argument for the existence of God there is.  We see how God acted in the past when we read the pages of Scripture.  We see God acting today...when we witness the heart-felt convictions of those who serve him.  Amen.

 

04-29-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

LIVING THIS SIDE OF THE CROSS: PART II

    Jean-Jacques Rousseau…did I get that right?  Jean-Jacques Rousseau was an 18^th century   social theorist.  His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution, and the development of modern sociological thought.  In a book entitled Discourse on Inequality, he wrote:

The first man who fenced in a piece of land and said, “This is mine,” then found people naïve enough to believe him...that man was the true founder of civil society.  From how many crimes and wars and murders; from how many horrors and misfortunes might not anyone have saved mankind by pulling up the stakes or filling in the ditch and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this imposter; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.

    That is really quite profound.  Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a brilliant man, but Jean-Jacques Rousseau was not a humble man.  In the first pages of his final book, ironically titled, Confessions, Rousseau imagines himself having died and gone to heaven.  He approaches the heavenly gates with his head held high.   He carries a copy of his Confessions.  As he passes through the Pearly Gates all of heaven turns toward him. The heavenly host actually set their praise of God aside to listen to his story.  He boasts, “I have bared my secret soul, as God himself hast seen it.  So let the numberless legion of my fellow men gather round me and hear my confessions.  And may any man who dares, say, ‘I was a better man than he.’”

    Wow!  Now there was a man who was full of himself.  Contrast this scenario with the story of a man named Karl Barth. Karl Barth was arguably the greatest theologian of the 20^th century. His epic work was entitled, Church Dogmatics.  It consists of 14 volumes, and it is some of the most complex reading I have ever encountered.  Someone once quipped, “When Karl Barth dies, God is immediately going to take him up to heaven so he can find out more about himself.”  Such was the intricacy and complexity of Karl Barth’s writing.

    In his biography of Karl Barth, a man named Eberhard Busch quotes the great theologian speculating on his appearance at the Pearly Gates.  Barth imagines himself pushing along a cart full of books.  Yet the heavenly host does not turn to him for a reading.  Instead…they    laugh.  “In heaven,” Barth says, “we shall know all that is necessary, and we shall not have to write on paper or read any more.  Indeed…I shall be able to dump even the Church Dogmatics on some great heavenly floor as a pile of waste paper.”

    Rousseau dared to imagine that God and the heavenly host might be illumined by what he had to say. Barth understood that his mortal understanding of God – as great as it was – was still very limited.  Which of these two stories better captures your understanding of your own self-worth in God’s eyes?   Which of these two stories better describes your sense of your own standing before God?   If it’s the former, I think you may have a small problem.  If it’s the latter, congratulations!  You’ve been paying attention all these years.

    While we may have our standing before God in proper perspective, I’m not so sure we have our standing in the world in proper perspective. We have become an individualistic society. Ask a teacher.  If a child gets in trouble at school and his parents are called into the principal’s office to deal with it, who are the parents most likely to believe is at fault: their child…or the teacher?  Ask an employer. Many will agree that these days, a lot of people feel as if they are doing the employer a favor by showing up for work. As I’ve said before, there are two common phrases that pretty much sum up one of the greatest problems in our society.   One is the Burger King mantra: “Have it your way.” The other is a code by which many retail stores abide.  That code is, “The customer is always right.”  Those two phrases have helped to skew our perspective on our place in the world.  Perhaps we could even say that our world-view has become more Rousseauian than Barthian.  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    Last week we began a sermon series entitled, Living This Side of the Cross.  The thesis of   that sermon was pretty much summed up in verses 14 and 15 in the 4^th chapter of the book of Ephesians.  There the Apostle Paul writes, “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and blown about by every wind of doctrine.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head…into Christ Jesus our Lord.”   In other words, this is a sermon series on growing up in Christ.

    When it comes to growing up in Christ, perhaps the place to start is the church.  Jesus Christ himself established the church through his disciples.  The church was called the body of Christ. 

The church is not Jesus, yet it is called to do the work of Christ in the world.  And many of the epistles in our New Testament were letters written to specific churches.  Case in point, the passage I read from the book of Ephesians.  The church in Ephesus was established by an eloquent Jewish preacher by the name of Apollos.  Paul initially stopped to visit this fledgling Christian congregation on his second missionary journey.  He met with them – there were only twelve of them at the time – and guided them into receiving the Holy Spirit.  Due to certain trying circumstances, he ended up staying with them for three years.

    Now most of the epistles in the Bible were written to resolve some particular problem that had arisen in the church. In Thessalonica some of the members of the church were sure that Jesus’ return was so imminent…that they quit working.  The Corinthians were squabbling about diet, sex and worship. The Galatians were regressing into tired old Jewish legalism and needed a thorough shaking up.   Like I said, most of the epistles in the Bible were written to resolve some particular problem that had arisen in the church. It seems as though there have always been problems in the church.

    The book of Ephesians is the lone exception. The book of Ephesians was not provoked by a problem. Ephesians may have actually been a general church letter that was circulated among several first century congregations.  So you see…the book of Ephesians works from the other direction.  It immerses us in holy and healthy conditions...out of which a mature Christian life can develop.  That is why it will be my primary text throughout the course of this series of sermons.

    The book of Ephesians begins with such peaceful eloquence. “To the saints who are faithful   in Christ Jesus,” Paul writes, “Grace to you, and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.”  It sounds so calm. It sounds so serene. It sounds so ideal.  And isn’t that the way we all want to experience church?  Yet IS that the way we all experience church?

    There is a quote from Eugene Peterson printed in the Silent Reflection portion of your bulletin this morning. He writes, “Church is the textured context in which we grow up in Christ to maturity.”  Like I said earlier, “When it comes to growing up in Christ, perhaps the place to start is the church.”  Then he writes, “But church is difficult.”  In fact, “Many Christians find church to be the most difficult aspect of being a Christian.”  Finally, he adds, “So many drop out.  There may be more Christians who don’t go to church, or go only occasionally, than there are who embrace it, warts and all.  And there are certainly plenty of warts.” 

    What has hurt the church more than the scandals involving Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart?  And need I mention the headlines some Catholic priests made a few years ago?  And then there are the endless arguments over the ordination of homosexuals…and the burgeoning debate over same-sex marriage.  Casual or superficial experience with the church can leave one with impressions of bloody fights, acrimonious arguments, blatant hypocrisy, and warring factions.   If the church is meant to be God’s advertisement to the world – if the church is meant to be a utopian community put on display so that people will flock to it, clamoring to get it...it has obviously become a piece of failed strategy.

    Yet the church is meant to be the core element for providing a human witness and a physical presence to the coming kingdom of God.  In other words, it’s all we’ve got.  As my systematic theology professor, Harold Nebelsick, used to say, “The kingdom is here…but not fully here.” Perhaps the question now...is this:  Could it be that the church we have is exactly what God intended when he created the church?  Could it be that the church we have provides the very conditions necessary for growing up in Christ? Could it be that God knew what he was doing when he gave us the church; this church?   Perhaps the answer to those questions depends on whether you are Rousseauian or Barthian.  In other words, is the church meant to please people, or is the church meant to challenge people to grow?

    I want you to listen to a story.  I don’t know who the author was, but one could assume that the person who wrote it is in his – or her – mid-to-late seventies.  In any case, listen closely.

    I grew up in the 1940s with practical parents.  My mother would wash aluminum foil after she cooked with it, and then reuse it.  She was the original recycling queen…even before they had a name for it.  My father was always happier getting an old pair of shoes fixed, rather than buying new ones. Their marriage was good; their dreams focused. Their best friends lived barely a wave away.

    I can almost see them now: Dad in trousers, a t-shirt, and a hat; Mom in a house dress with a dish in one hand and a towel in the other.  It was the time for fixing things: a curtain rod, the kitchen radio, the screen door, the oven, the hem in a dress…they were things we kept.  It was    a way of life, and it sometimes made me crazy.  All that fixing, saving and reusing…just once I wanted to be wasteful.  Waste meant affluence.  Throwing things away meant that you knew   there would always be more.

    But then my mother died, and on that clear summer’s night in the warmth of a hospital room, I was struck with the pain of learning: Sometimes, there isn’t any more.  Sometimes, what we care about most gets all used up and goes away, never to return.  So – while we have it – it’s best that we love it, and care for it, and fix it when it’s broken.  This goes for the kitchen radio, the screen door, the oven…and the hem in a dress.

    Yet maybe it also applies to marriages, to children with bad report cards, to strained relationships and even to churches.  We live in a throw-away society.  Yet maybe there are some things we shouldn’t throw away. Maybe there are some things that are worth fighting to keep. 

    God certainly feels that way about us. That’s why he sent his Son, Jesus Christ, in the first place.  So maybe we can let ourselves off the hook when it comes to that desperate question:  “Am I in the right place? Have I done the right thing?”  Sometimes we need to acknowledge   that we – or others – have made mistakes, and we must certainly try to learn from them.  But we should not foster the kind of worry that leads to despair.  We should not give up…on the church, on others, or on ourselves.  The providence of God means that wherever we have gotten to – whatever we have done – that is precisely…where the road to heaven begins.  Amen.

 

04-22-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

LIVING THIS SIDE OF THE CROSS: PART I

    Wendell Berry is an author, a poet, and what some have called a prophet of contemporary culture.  In a book entitled, What Are People For? he writes, “We think it ordinary to spend twelve or sixteen or twenty years of a person’s life – and many thousands of public dollars – on education.”  Yet we spend not one dime or give one thought to character.  Does character matter?  Could there be a kind of wisdom or knowledge that exists outside of what we might learn in school?

    Flannery O’Connor seemed to think so.  Flannery O’Connor was a 20^th century American writer. Her novels and short stories often reflected her own Catholic faith, and frequently examined questions of morality and character.  In a book entitled, Everything That Rises Must Converge, we meet a young man who has returned home to die…or so he thinks.  He is arrogant, pretentious, intellectually proud, and very well-educated.  On his deathbed, he decides he wants to see a priest; but not just any priest.  He pictures in his mind the dramatic content of his end-of-life conversations with an equally well-educated priest…a person of culture, as well as religion.

    Much to his consternation, however…instead of encountering a worldly, sophisticated and slightly cynical Jesuit priest – the priest of his imagining – the priest who actually arrives at his bedside is nothing of the sort.  He is short, he is portly, he is anything but sophisticated, and he arrives at the man’s bedside and introduces himself by saying, “I’m Fahther Finn – from Purrgatory.”  And instead of responding to the dying young man’s questions about the literary merits of James Joyce – or the significance of mythology behind the world’s great religions – the priest insists upon asking questions of his own.

    “So,” the priest asks him, “do you say your morning and your evening prayers?  You don’t, eh?  Well, you will never learn to be good unless you pray regularly. You cannot love Jesus unless you speak with him.  Do you have trouble with purity? We all do, but you must pray to the Holy Ghost for it.  Mind, heart, body, and soul.  Nothing is overcome without prayer.  Pray with your family.  Do you pray with your family?” 

    By this time, the proud young intellectual is fit to be tied.  He isn’t having the kind of conversation he imagined.  And at the suggestion that he should pray with his family, he shouts, “God forbid!  My mother doesn’t have time to pray, and my sister is an atheist!”  The priest responds, “A shame.  Then you must pray for them.”

    The conversation only becomes more tense from here on out as the young man attempts to steer the priest toward the more comfortable shores of the arts by saying, “The artist prays by creating.” To which the old priest responds, “That’s not enough! If you do not pray daily you are neglecting your immortal soul.  Do you know your catechism?”

    Here the young man feels as though he is on firmer ground.  He doesn’t need a catechism.  He is an intellectual – an artist – free to experience the world and form his own opinions of it.  “Certainly not!” he replies.  “I do not know my catechism.  I do not need my catechism.”

    The priest moves on relentlessly – not justifying, not explaining – just walking through the catechism.  “Who made you?” he asks.  The young man replies, “Different people believe different things about that.”  “God made you,” the priest says.  “Now, who is God?”

    The young man replies, “God is an idea created by man.”  The priest responds as if he hadn’t even heard the young man’s answer.  “God is a Spirit; infinitely perfect,” he says.  “Now…why did God make you?” The young man tries to deny the premise but the priest cuts him off. “God made you to know him, to love him, to serve him in this world, and to be happy with him in the next.”

    Exasperated, the priest says at last, “If you don’t apply yourself to the catechism, how do you expect to know how to save your immortal soul?” “Listen,” the young man says, “I’m not a Roman Catholic.”  “A poor excuse for not saying your prayers,” the old priest answers.  “But I’m dying,” the young man says.  “You’re not dead yet,” the priest retorts.

    After a turn in the conversation in which the priest instructs the young man on how to receive the Holy Spirit, the old priest leaves.  The last thing the young man hears the priest say, however, is a comment to his mother.  “He is a good lad at heart,” the priest says, “but very ignorant.”

    What strikes me most about this conversation is the confidence of the priest.  He knows that the questions addressed in the catechism – fashionable or not – are the real questions at the heart of life.  The old priest standing beside the young man’s bed, tenaciously asking questions that he callously brushes aside, reminds us of what faith looks like…and the contribution it can make to our character.  Questions, like some of the great questions in the catechism, remind us that going deeper means asking very tried and true questions…whatever the preoccupation of contemporary culture may say about what matters most.

    We think it ordinary to spend twelve or sixteen or twenty years of a person’s life and many thousands of public dollars on education.   Yet we spend not one dime or give one thought to a person’s character.  Does character matter?  Is there a kind of wisdom or knowledge that exists outside of what we might learn in school? I think the old priest in that Flannery O’Connor story would say that character does matter and that there is a kind of wisdom or knowledge that exists outside of what we might learn in school.  What do you think?

    Consider the passage that I read from the gospel according to John.  Jesus had been crucified on a Friday afternoon. Come Sunday morning, the disciples heard some wild reports from a few women who’d been to the tomb claiming that he was alive, but they were a bit unsure as to what to make of them. Then – suddenly – Jesus himself appeared to them. The only problem here was that Thomas – better known as Doubting Thomas – was not with them, and he refused to believe what the other disciples were telling him.  “Unless I see the mark of the nails,” he said, “and put my finger in the mark of the nails…I will not believe.” 

    One week later, Thomas got his wish. Jesus appeared to them again and said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.  Do not be faithless, Thomas, but believe.”  Thomas immediately blurted out, “My Lord and my God!”  And Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and still believe.”

    Now after this event, the author of the gospel of John lays out the purpose of his book.  He writes, “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.  But these are written…so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of the Living God; and that through believing, you may have life in his name.”

    Here’s the quandary.  What does it mean to have life in his name?  Our Americanized gospel has come to interpret life in his name to mean eternal life, and that’s true.  But it means a whole lot more than that.  The Greek word translated “life” here is zoane.  It literally means life in the physical sense...of the supernatural life believers will receive in the future, as well as that which they enjoy in the here and now. Ladies and gentlemen, listen closely.  Life in Jesus’ name has to do with eternal life.  But it also has to do with life in the here and now...a life of grace and peace and beauty and holiness.  This is what the old priest was trying to tell the dying young man.  The question for us now, I suppose, is this: “How do we get there?”  How do we attain a life of grace and peace and beauty and holiness ourselves?

    I encountered a startling story in a book by Eugene Peterson entitled, Practice Resurrection.  There was a woman who grew up in poverty in Arkansas in a harsh fundamentalist atmosphere and abusive circumstances.  When she was eighteen-years-old, she escaped her home town and her family and fled to California.  It wasn’t long before she became pregnant.  She was ecstatic about this new life growing inside of her.  She had never felt more “herself.”  She had meaning; she had joy; she felt for the very first time as if she was taking part in the mystery of life.  While she was no longer religious in any conventional sense, she was convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that God had created and given this life that was within her.

    She gave birth to the baby.  It was sheer ecstasy, beauty and goodness.  And then, a few weeks later, she fell apart. She knew nothing about life. She didn’t know what to do. She was confused, bewildered, and without bearings. She had no idea what to do with a baby...and no visible means to support one. She started drinking and became an alcoholic. She went on to use cocaine and became an addict.  It wasn’t long before she turned to prostitution.  She spent the next twenty years on the streets of San Francisco, trying to keep herself and her son afloat.

    And then one day, she wandered into a church.  The church was empty, so she sat down and prayed.  And then it happened.  She didn’t know exactly how or why, but she knew that it had happened.  She had become a Christian.  Then it turned out that she was pregnant again.  This time around, she knew that she knew nothing about living…but she also knew that this time around there wasn’t going to be any hand-to-mouth existence on alcohol, drugs and prostitution. After poking around a bit, she discovered and embraced the Christian faith, and gave herself up entirely to Jesus Christ.  

    But do you know what she found most difficult from that point on?  American churches.  It’s not that she wasn’t welcomed. She was. In fact, she was something of a prize to the church. She was one who had been plucked from the underbelly of the world, and had been transformed, literally. What she found, however, was that these American churches seemed to know a lot about being born again in Jesus’ name.  The problem was that they seemed neither interested nor competent in matters pertaining to spiritual growth. They knew a lot about the life of Christ, but they weren’t very good at navigating life in Christ.  The people of the church were unable to help her as she struggled to live this side of the cross.  She was drowning in a sea of chaos, and there was no one there to toss her a lifeline.

    What do you think about that story?  Should the members of the church have been able to   help her in matters pertaining to spiritual growth, or is that something that’s pretty much the responsibility of the individual? Should the members of the church have been able to help her to live this side of the cross, or are we pretty much on our own when it comes to such things?  What it all comes down to is this: People are bobbing in a sea of chaos all around us.  Are we equipped, as Christians, to toss them a lifeline?  Or are we willing to simply let them drown?

    At our Lake Erie Presbytery meeting last Tuesday night, a minister friend of mine by the name of Harry Johns addressed the presbytery.  He said, “The church is one generation from death.” He said that when he used to make that statement as a young preacher he didn’t really believe it.  But now, as a retired veteran of fifty years of ministry, he sees it as a distinct possibility.  The church is one generation from death.

    Jesus transformed the world with but eleven disciples.  Judas, of course, betrayed him and was no longer counted among the twelve.  The way I like to look at that is this: Even Jesus could only keep eleven out of twelve happy.  That gives me consolation when people get upset with me. Ladies and gentlemen, we have nearly 1000 members on our rolls.   Don’t you think we could make a difference in the name of Jesus Christ in our community…if we only knew how?

    The sermon series we begin today is entitled, “Living This Side of the Cross.”  It has to do with spiritual growth.  As Howie read a moment ago from the book of Ephesians, “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro, and blown about by every wind of doctrine.  But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head...into Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Join me over the course of the next few weeks.  We’re going to spend a little time exploring spiritual growth.  We’re going to spend a little time learning how to throw a lifeline.  We’re going to spend a little time...developing character.  Don’t you think it’s high time we did? Amen.

 

04-01-2012 Sermon by The Rev. Dr. Brian K. Jensen

THE SUPERFICIAL SAGA: PART VIII

    In the year of 1970 – I suspect that sounds like ancient history to some of you, while it seems like only yesterday to others – in the year of 1970 a single man and a single woman on a college campus started living together…and it made national news.  You see, prior to 1970 it was illegal for a man and a woman to live together without the benefit of marriage. Today I’m guessing that at least 75% of the couples I marry are living together before their wedding day. It’s gotten to the point where I don’t bother to even ask any more.  I figure…at least they’re trying to do the right thing now.   We Americans have rationalized our way into believing that living together prior to marriage is a morally and socially acceptable practice.

      Biblical mores aside, I used to be able to say that living together prior to marriage greatly increased the odds that the marriage would end in divorce.  My theory was, “How do you go from a relationship with virtually no commitment to a relationship of the highest commitment?”  And there were statistics to back me up on that.  Then I read an article on the front page of The Meadville Tribune entitled, “Pre-Marriage Move-In No Longer Predicts Divorce.”  Essentially, it said that nearly 50% of all first marriages break up in the first 20 years. And living together first is no longer a factor in determining the success rate of marriage.

    Yet could it be that there is another factor that has contributed to the high rate of divorce in this country?  Could it be that there is something deeper than couples living together that impacts the success or failure of a marriage?  Keep that thought in mind as we move on.

    This is the eighth in a series of sermons entitled, The Superficial Saga.  It’s a sermon series on the seven deadly sins. We poke a lot of fun at sin these days. Truth be told, I don’t think we take sin very seriously.  Yet God takes sin seriously.  In fact, God takes sin so seriously…that he sent his Son to die on a cross in order to overcome it.  Sin is not a matter to be taken lightly, as though a person could saunter into God’s presence at any time, in any mood, with any sort of life behind them…and at once perceive God there.   No, the sense of God’s reality is a progressive and often laborious achievement of the soul; the soul that takes sin seriously and earnestly tries to dispel it.

    Six weeks ago we examined the sin of pride.  We determined that pride is a sin basically because Jesus said it was.  The secret to overcoming pride is humility.  And the key to humility is to approach God not as the big, self-sufficient, and self-reliant adults we pretend to be.  Instead, we approach God as little children: frail, empty, dependent...needing a gracious and loving God in the worst possible way.

    Five weeks ago we examined the sin of envy.  We determined that envy is cold-hearted and cruel.  From a theological standpoint envy is basically our own sense of dissatisfaction with the way God made us.  The secret to conquering envy is love.  And the secret to love…is to wish what’s best for someone else.

    Four weeks ago we examined the sin of wrath or anger.  We determined that anger is a normal human emotion that needs to be expressed.  Yet that anger needs to be expressed in the form of an offering to God.  In other words, we express our anger to God in prayer…and then leave it in God’s hands to rectify the situation.  The secret to conquering anger is forgiveness.  Forgiveness then breaks the cycle of anger that peace might rule the day.

    Three weeks ago we examined the sin of sloth.  We determined that sloth is essentially a spiritual apathy that stems from a sense of hopelessness about the world. The key to overcoming sloth is to remember that we serve God, not anyone else.  We are called to remain diligent in our tasks, and in our belief, that God’s kingdom will come to pass when all the world comes to serve God.

    Two weeks ago we examined the sin of greed.  We determined that all that greed gets us is a whole lot of stress and a much shorter life.  Greed says, “I want, I need, I’ve simply got to have.”  Charity says, “Thank you, God, for what I do have.” Thus, perhaps charity is just as much for us as it is for whatever charitable institution it is to which we choose to give.

    Last week we examined the sin of gluttony.  We determined that gluttony is weakness…and that weakness is the door through which the devil always tries to enter.  The key to overcoming said weakness is more a positive frame of mind than it is anything else.

    Today we examine the sin you’ve all been waiting for – the sin of lust.  As we saw in our passage from the first chapter of the book of Genesis, sexuality started out as a good gift from God. It says, “So God created humanity in his image; in the image of God he created them – male and female he created them.  God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply…and fill the earth.’”  In the first chapter of the book of Genesis men and women are seen as equals – both having been created in the image of God and charged to propagate the species.  It’s in the second chapter of the book of Genesis where things start to get messy...because that’s where we begin to make distinctions.

    The second chapter of the book of Genesis records another account of creation.  There we see that God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.  Then God took one of Adam’s ribs and with it he created Eve.  And for the last six thousand years, women have been seen as being subservient to men.

    It started with their temptation by the serpent in the Garden of Eden.  For centuries, Eve was seen as the culprit.  She was the one that was tempted by the Serpent, and she was the one who led poor Adam astray.  Recent scholarship, however, has tried to get Eve off the hook.  Experts say that at least Eve was thoughtful about what she did.  Adam just did it.  As one woman said, “That’s just like a man…always thinking about his stomach!”

    I want to put a different slant on that story.  I want every married man in the sanctuary this morning to raise his hand.  Now, keep your hand up…if you think it’s a good idea to complain about what your wife puts in front of you for dinner. I don’t complain about what my wife puts in front of me for dinner. I’m afraid to!  That’s probably what happened in the Garden of Eden.  Eve put an apple in front of Adam and said, “Here.  Eat this.”  Adam knew better than to question Eve. So you see, I’m not letting either one of them off the hook. In any case, by the end of the story, when Adam and Eve are banished from the Garden, they are clearly at odds with one another.  And it seems we’ve been unable to see one another as equals ever since.

    Jesus weighs in on the matter, as well, in the passage we read from the gospel according to Matthew.  There he says, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’  But I say   to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her   in his heart.”  Now granted, it would have been nice if Jesus had talked about women looking at men with lust as well, but the point remains the same. To look at a person with lust is to not see them as a person.  It is to see them...as an object.  Lust sees another person as an object for the gratification of its own lewd desires.  And therein lies the problem.

    But hey, that’s easier said than done, is it not?  We humans are passionate by nature.  It’s biological, for crying out loud!  But I submit to you that lust is not the same as love. Lust says,   “I can’t wait to see him again,” or, “I can hardly keep my hands off her.”  That’s what we call romantic infatuation.  Love is showing compassion even when you don’t feel very compassionate.  Love is continuing to give in spite of the desire to take.  Love is holding on when it would be so much easier to just let go.  Love is a mutual respect that is built upon years and years of hard work and sacrifice. You see, love is not something so fleeting as a fickle emotion.  Love… is a state of being.

    As I frequently say in my wedding sermons, love is bringing a beautiful, healthy child into a world full of pain because you truly believe your love can make a difference.  Love is watching that child grow up and decide to share his or her life with that of another.  Love is standing beside your spouse when they’re lying in a hospital bed…worried sick about what life would be like without them.  Love is sitting across the room from one another after the kids have grown and gone – perhaps not saying a word to each other – but looking at each other and remembering a lifetime of shared memories.  Love takes time because love is so much more than a fickle emotion.  Love…is a state of being.

    Now back to the notion of living together before marriage.  It seems as though it is now a proven fact that living together prior to marriage does not impact the success rate of marriage in any way.  Could it be that there is something deeper than couples living together that impacts the success or failure of a marriage?  I think there is.

    The general rule of thumb these days…is that after three dates, a couple is expected to sleep together.  And by sleep, I don’t mean sleep. So here’s what happens. A couple sleeps together, and the sex is good.  So then they move in together, and the sex is still good. Then they decide   to get married, and the sex is still good.  Then a few years down the road, the thrill wears off a little bit.  Suddenly a couple discovers that they’re married to someone that, a) they don’t really know, and b) they don’t really like!  Such is the fruit of a relationship built on lust.  Now that’s just my theory.   I’ve never read it or heard it anywhere.   I just think that’s what the problem is.   A relationship that is not built on mutual trust and respect is simply destined to fail. 

    So what have we learned so far?  We’ve examined the seven deadly sins.  And along with that, we’ve examined the seven holy virtues or the seven cardinal virtues.  The seven holy virtues are meant to counteract the seven deadly sins.  As I’ve mentioned in every sermon for the last seven weeks, the only way to conquer sin…is to replace it with something better.

    Yet truth be told, we will never be able to completely master our sin, no matter how hard we try.  If we could, then God would have sent his Son into the world for nothing.  So we have a bit of a conundrum here. On the one hand we are miserable, wretched, hopeless sinners in desperate need of the grace of God.  Yet on the other hand, we are the beloved children of God – more precious to God than life itself. 

    Martin Luther called this situation, simul iustis et peccator.  What that means is this.  We are both justified and sinner at the same time.  We are loved, accepted, redeemed and saved – and we are rebellious, deceitful, dishonorable and vile – at the same time.  Perhaps all this means… is that God isn’t finished with us yet. 

    My oldest son is going to have my hide for telling this story, but I’m going to tell it anyway.  About ten years ago, my son and two of his friends had a book of matches and some fireworks.  They were in a field and it had been very dry that summer.  Let’s just say that shortly after they left the area where they had been…six to eight-foot flames erupted.  A vigilant neighbor called the fire department and disaster was averted. Now in fairness to my son, he did not light the fire.  But as far as I was concerned, he was guilty by association.

    When I found out what had happened, I rounded up my son, Rob, and one of the other boys –   a boy named Neal – and drug them down to the police station. There they made their confession and essentially received a slap on the wrist.  As we were driving home, I said to the boys, “You got off easy.  The next time, you may not be so lucky.”

    I knew I had done the right thing when Rob immediately said, “There won’t be a next time.”  He learned from his mistake.  And Neal…Neal just rolled his eyes.  Ladies and gentlemen, my son is currently interviewing for acceptance into a pharmacy school.  Neal died last summer of a drug overdose.

    Did I love my son any less for his mistake?  No.  Did I love him enough to let him learn the consequences of his actions? Yes.  Maybe that’s what God is doing for us as well.  He loved us enough to send his only Son.  And he loves us enough to let us learn from our mistakes.  God’s not finished with us yet.  What will you make of your mistakes?  Amen.