Sermon
Sunday, Sept. 21, 2008
Scripture Jonah 3:10-4:11
What is God like?
When I was a pastor in East Texas I went to visit an warm and wonderful elderly woman in our congregation. Elta beamed with the love of God and her mercy and compassion were known throughout our community. I went there to ask her about a family still on the church membership role, but a family who many had told me had not been to church for 10 years. As soon as I mentioned the “Johnson” family Elta’s head nodded. “Yes, a wonderful family who have been through a lot in the last 10 years. And I think I know why they’ve stopped coming to church
You see 10 years ago their son committed suicide and at the time we had a wonderful retired pastor…I mean I just loved him…but sometimes he would feel a need to preach a little fire and brimstone. And at the funeral he felt called…as he put it…to share that their son was going to hell God didn’t believe in suicide. It was an unforgivable sin. We never saw the “Johnsons” again. “
Suddenly Elta’s demeaner changed. Her face turned introspective and a tear came down her cheek.
“You know, brother Brook, (this was the south) I don’t know if I can say this or not…I mean he was a preacher and all… He should know…but I just still can’t believe that the God I know through Jesus Christ would send Joey Johnson to hell….he was sick…he wasn’t right in his head at that moment…I just can’t believe that …..
What’s God like…what’s your God like?
And now I know what you’re saying…well all you have to do is turn to the Bible…and that’s exactly the right answer…but as we turn to the Bible…we don’t always get a clear picture of who God is…
The Bible holds a plethora of different images of God…which I really appreciate…
God is a rock.
God is alpha and omega
God is river
God is never changing
God is the big powerful grandfather figure who sits on a chair as our judge.
God is a beggar on the street begging us to turn
..well, which one is God really?
Even in the first 2 chapters of Genesis we get two different images of God.
In the first creation story…written later…we encounter a God who is so powerful that if God speaks…it happens…God said “Let there be light” and there was light” God said let there be dome placed in the midst of the waters…and it was so….it this story God seems to hover way up above and hurl the world into being with God’s voice.
And then you read the second creation story…the one about Adam and Eve…and suddenly we have a God who is intimately related to us…God is walking on the earth…coming down to walk with us…so concerned about Adam ….allowing us to name the animals…
Which God is really God?
What is God really like?
For Israel, at the time of that the story of Jonah was written….God was the God of Israel. They were God’s chosen people. God was their God…concerned primarily and sometimes as I read the Bible…the only people God cared about. God was Israel’s God…other countries…other cultures had their own God…but in the end the God of Israel was the greatest.
But then the writer of the story of Jonah got to thinking….Is God really like that? And he wrote this story written in order to challenge the people of Israel’s thinking about God. According to this writer….God didn’t just care about Israel….God cared about the Ninevites too….God wasn’t just the God of Israel but cared about people outside of Israel….
And so the writer wrote this story about Jonah…asked by God to reach out and preach to the city of Nineveh….seems to make sense to us right? Of course God would want someone to preach to Nineveh…I mean John Wesley said it…”the whole world is our parish”….but you see that’s not exactly the way the people of Israel thought in those days. God didn’t concern Godself with the world…God concerned Godself with Israel…Nineveh was pagan…Nineveh was defiled and unclean and unholy.
And so what does Jonah do….run…run as far away from God as he can get….
Don’t you just love it…?
I mean picture it from God’s point of view….it’s just so funny…this little tiny Jonah…hopping in a boat…rowing out to sea…..and God looking down and watching it all.
Of course you can’t run away from God…
Reminds me of the great passage in the 139th Psalm.
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, [a] you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
You can’t hide from God.
But that doesn’t stop us from trying…and so Jonah runs…but God catches up with him…and before we know it God has rescued Jonah in of all things the belly of a whale….
Does not anyone else think that is funny!
I mean I’ve heard of some crazy rescue vehicles…but a whale!!!!! This is one crazy God.
And then you know the rest of the story don’t you…Jonah finally goes…and the Ninevites…Get it…they repent…and God?
Well, according to the book of Jonah….GOD CHANGES GOD’s MIND…
Now there’s an interesting image of God….I thought God was never changing…
And yet…here in Jonah…God actually changes God’s mind…
Remind you of any passage in the O.T…..?
Remember in the desert….Moses Goes up to meet God on Mt. Horeb and the Israelites…while they wait…start partying and building false idols.
Remember what God was going to do?
And then Moses went up again to the mountain and pleads with God to spare his people…
And what does God do….God changes God’s mind…
Only this time God’s changing God’s mind about the foreigners…
And how does Jonah react?
Like a like little pouty child…he can’t stand it!
His self righteous indignation overwhelms him….
God is changing…and I don’t like it!
Could it be that the writer of Jonah wasn’t just talking about Jonah…but was talking about all of us when we encounter radical change to our belief systems?
It’s not easy when we encounter experiences in our world that questions our understandings of God….is it?
Sometimes we just need to sit under a tree for a while and think about them…maybe even pout for a while….
Teaching in Beresford on the Social Principals…I saw a lot of ….Jonah looks….people sometimes pouting on their own under a tree….off by themselves. It’s not easy to encounter new things…especially when we get to talking about the sacred and holy….
This past week I’ve been reading a book written by a Chaplain for the Parks service in Maine. Much of her work is working with search and rescue…looking for lost children/adults…being with parents and families during the search…being there whether they find the child or not….
It’s a fascinating book…It’s called “Here I You Need me.” And it’s written by Kate Braestrup. In it she tells story after story that touch your heart. She tells of working in the nursing home and building a relationship with one resident…Annie Payne who always wanted her to read the bible to her…it didn’t matter what chapter or book…just open it up and read it…she tells of the wonderful love she has received from her husband Drew…she tells of tells a story of a lost child and all that waiting and the joy the family and the rescue team experiences when one of the team found the child sleeping under a tree.
But most of the book tells the story of her grief and loss when her husband drew dies in a car accident.
“Good news….”
Dear professors, dear brother.
It is possible that God is the way Annie Payne used to lean her old head against my shoulder, trusting me as I held her on the bedpan; Drew’s arm holding me in our fertile scent; Ron Dunham walking out of the woods hand in hand with a child lost, then found. It is possible that God is my neighbor with her pan of brownies standing on my doorstep. It is entirely possible, that is, that the God I serve and worship with all my body, all my mind, all my soul, and all my spirit is love (I John 4:8). It’s enough. It’s all the God I need.” (page 55)
What is God really like….
Monday, September 22, 2008
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Brook's Sermon Sept. 14, 2008
Sermon,
Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008
Rev. Brook R. McBride
Matthew 18: 21-35
A True story.
A man from Seattle recently walked into his pastor’s office and sat down.
His nose covered in gauze.
He looked at his pastor and said, “I think I met God today”
The pastor crossed her arms in amusement, leaned back in her chair and said, “oh really…please tell”
Well, actually this whole thing started 5 years ago when I got fired by my best friend. I mean this was my best friend…we’d both had season tickets to the Seattle Seahawks…we spent Christmas’s together with our families…we were tight…I had pictures of his children in my wallet for crying out loud.
And then one day, out of nowhere, he just turned…he betrayed me…he set me up to take the fall for a business mistake he made…not me.
Ever since then, not a day passes (until today) that I didn’t start out my day filled with rage and anger whenever I thought of my old friend and boss.
And then last night something strange happened. I was walking down the street and sure enough I recognized my old friends house…as I drew near the house all of those old familiar hateful feelings too over and I couldn’t help but recall all of the details of what happened that day he fired me…the peremptory e-mail, the refusal to discuss the matter, the public announcement at a motivational rally…for crying out loud…at work where he announced to the whole company that “I…his friend” had “Failed to meet expectations in a company committ3ed to meeting expectations,” all that followed by the public request---blaring over loudspeakers for the whole world to hear---that I leave the meeting immediately, pick up my belongings at the front desk and never, ever return. All of these events…even though they happened 5 years ago…still felt fresh…raw…cruel…wrong.
And so all of the sudden I just got this urge…last night…standing in front of my old friend’s house to do something. Nothing major…just something….something to pay him back…I mean it wasn’t like I hadn’t felt the urge every day to do something to him…but tonight ….just for the fun of it really…I decided to do something small…yet symbolic…something I could get away with…something that would do no serious harm but would make me feel good…at least for a minute or two…you know? And so I decided to do what kids have been doing for years to neighbors they hate. I took a rock…one with jagged edges…and just like David downed Goliath…I took that rock and threw it at my old friend’s window with every bit of anger and frustration I could muster. I mean I wound up and let it fly…and just for a moment I felt happy. Victorious. Avenged.
But then it happened. You see my aim wasn’t so hot. Instead of smashing the window, the rock hit a drain pipe right next to the window and ricocheted back. And there I was, standing on the sidewalk below, my face eagerly upturned, grinning, expectation to saver this moment, but suddenly realizing that I was not the target of the very rock I had just thrown. And Unable to duck in time, the rock hit me head on…almost as if it was the plan all along. The stone hit me right on the bridge of my nose…and 10 minutes later I was in the emergency room getting stitches.
Pastor, I have never felt so humiliated in my life…and yet you know what…it made me think…
For 5 years now…I’ve lost my life to one single event. That’s all I’ve thought about…REVENGE…
Can you please teach me how I can start forgiving this guy…I’m sick of this feeling. You know instead of taking a stroll last night and enjoying the full moon and the cool summer breeze…I was plotting revenge. Imagine how many moments in my life had become contaminated with all this toxicity. Imagine how much time I have given to nursing this anger and keeping it alive. And you know what I’ve realized…the only person who has suffered through all of this has been me…I’m the one who is even in more pain! It’s like a cancer…a parasite. And it’s eating away at my life…Last night God told me…through a rock no less…that it’s time to stop.
{“Dare to Forgive” by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. }
The pastor…sitting there in her chair…could only think of one thing…an old saying by Confucius that says “When you start down the road to revenge, first dig two graves” She didn’t share this saying with her parishioner… instead she started trying to figure out how to teach her new friend how to forgive.
We know we ought to forgive…I mean Jesus makes it pretty clear…Peter asks, “Rabbi should I forgive 7 times?” And Jesus says, “No…70 x 7 times!”
OK …OK….OK Jesus! We get it. We are supposed to forgive…But that doesn’t mean it’s easy…or even that we do it…we just know we should.
And even the medical community has come on board stating that forgiveness isn’t just a gift you give the one who wrongs you…but it’s a gift you give yourself. Forgiveness detoxifies our own hurt and hatred. Forgiveness sets me free to embrace all the good in my life ahead. Forgiveness improves your health. By improving your physical and emotional health and by increasing your chances of living longer. In fact its been proven medically that living with all of that anger and resentment can be as bad for you as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or having high blood pressure, or an elevated level of cholesterol. In other words, anger and resentment can kill you.
So why is it that the things that are so good for us…taste so bad..ugh..Forgivness is so hard isn’t it?
Well, maybe not always.
Dr. Edward M. Hallowell…a medical doctor…writes a story in his book, “Dare to Forgive” about him and his wife getting into an argument early in their marriage. It was a silly argument really. He had wanted to take a different way home, but his wife was driving and she said, “No! We’re not going to take that way home…my way is the shortest way.”
And he crossed his arms and said, “You’re so stubborn…this is ridiculous!”
And she said, “Well you’re a jerk!” They didn’t speak the rest of the way home. They were locked into a fight neither of them had wanted, but neither one of them would back down either.
When they got home, they were still steaming. He stomped upstairs and went to bed. She stayed down in the kitchen. As he lay in his bed, brooking, he thought of how stupid this was…wondered how he could resolve it…so like most men…food came to mind…he quietly and gently called down to his wife and asked if she would please bring him a little snack when she came upstairs (what an idiot!). A few minutes later he could hear her stomp upstairs, swing the door open, and there was his snack…a single stalk of wilted celery…”Here’s your snack.”
There was a pause as they both took in her message. And then suddenly they both began to laugh. And suddenly that lock of pride and anger sprang open and instantly they were one again.
Sometimes that’s the way it happens…spontaneous.
By the way, if you go to Dr. Hallowell’s house and open up his refrigerator you’ll probably find a single stalk of celery in the fridge…just in case!
Wouldn’t it be great if that’s how easy it was all the time to forgive? If we could all just open up the refrigerator grab a single stalk of withered celery…wave it once or twice and Poof all was great again?
Unfortunately, that’s not the way it happens is it…in fact Forgiveness is probably the greatest and toughest task you and I are called to do as Christians.
You know I’m going to criticize Jesus for a moment…I know I’m not supposed to do that…but one of the problems with Jesus in dealing with forgiveness is that he tells us to do it…but he doesn’t tell us how to do it. How do you forgive? How do you let big things go? Big things that hurt our hearts and soul…that burn like salt on a wound.
How to do we go about this task of forgiveness?
Well, Dr. Edward M. Hallowell…in his book “Dare to Forgive” gives us some how tos.
And what he does is break the act of forgiveness into 4 different steps or acts.
Act I: Pain…acknowledge the pain…do you know how hard this is to do for Midwesterners. I mean we are stuff it people. We just grin and bear it…we have been taught for generation after generation that the best way to handle pain is to ignore it…pretend it isn’t there…It may seem like there is an elephant in the room…but we’re not about to admit it. Well Dr. Hallowell says “admit it…acknowledge it…find a good friend…a pastor…a counselor…someone kind of removed from the immediate problem…and spill it to them…just tell them your story…get it out in the open. Acknowledge the pain you have.
Act II: Relive what happened and reflect upon it…using your beliefs, intelligence, and imagination to guide you and ask this simple question “WHAT DO I WANT THIS PAIN TO TURN INTO?”
Grab yourself by your emotional collar and say, Stop! Think! Do you want more pain and misery? Do you want to keep recycling this same hurt over and over again day after day after day…or do you want change…growth…healing?
Act III. As you continue to wrestle within yourself and with others, as you heal…begin to work you way past anger and resentment to a place of peace. I know, I know what your thinking…But pastor Brook its is impossible for goodness to come out of all this pain…all this bad stuff…it’s impossible for growth and health and happiness to come out of insult, injury or even death. But I’m telling you it can…it has. Start reading about storied of forgiveness. History is full of story after story of amazing acts of forgiveness.
Do you remember that terrible horrible shooting in 2006? Where 5 Amish school children were slaughtered by a gunman who finally shot himself. It happened in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania…look it up if you don’t believe me. October of 2006. 5 of their children slaughtered and what did the Amish community respond with…RAGE…REVENGE…no. They, instead, chose to respond with a remarkable Christian witness. One of the first things the Amish did was to reach out to the gunman’s widow, and her children. They brought them food. They raised money to help them pay their bills (for, on top of everything else, that family had lost its principal wage-earner).
Ten days after the shootings, a bulldozer crashed through the walls of the Amish schoolhouse at Nickel Mines. Anyone familiar with the Amish knows bulldozers aren’t their style. They don’t use that kind of machinery — and, besides, they’re a thrifty bunch. When demolishing a building, they typically descend upon it with nail-pullers and crowbars, laboriously salvaging as much lumber as they can. It’s the opposite of one of their famous barn-raisings.
Yet, on this occasion, the Amish hired an outside, non-Amish contractor to drive his bulldozer through the building, reducing it to splinters. They wanted the world to see that they were absolutely determined to forgive and forget: and quickly. To them, that public witness was well worth the cost of hiring the bulldozer and giving up the salvage value of the scrap lumber.
You can have a story just as inspirational…if you learn to forgive.
I dare you.
And then Act IV: Take stock and move forward. As you work your way past the anger and resentment, start surveying the new ground you have found. You’ll begin to see that your life has changed for the better...you’ll begin to realize how much wiser you are as a person. And even more importantly, you will be given opportunities to help others in their struggle to forgive.
No one said it’s easy…but who ever said that good was easy.
Do you want to do something great…brave…even Godly? Start forgiving today.
You know the amazing thing about God…God is so different than we are…that’s what holy means you know…different. You see God…the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ…comes into our bedroom every night and throws us a wilted stick of celery and says….can we laugh this one off and start over….Every night God forgives us…and then dares us to pay it forward.
No that’s what I call Holy….
“There’s a wide-ness in God’s mercy.
Like the wide-ness of the sea.
There’s a kindness in God’s justice
That is more than liberty”
Sunday, Sept. 14, 2008
Rev. Brook R. McBride
Matthew 18: 21-35
A True story.
A man from Seattle recently walked into his pastor’s office and sat down.
His nose covered in gauze.
He looked at his pastor and said, “I think I met God today”
The pastor crossed her arms in amusement, leaned back in her chair and said, “oh really…please tell”
Well, actually this whole thing started 5 years ago when I got fired by my best friend. I mean this was my best friend…we’d both had season tickets to the Seattle Seahawks…we spent Christmas’s together with our families…we were tight…I had pictures of his children in my wallet for crying out loud.
And then one day, out of nowhere, he just turned…he betrayed me…he set me up to take the fall for a business mistake he made…not me.
Ever since then, not a day passes (until today) that I didn’t start out my day filled with rage and anger whenever I thought of my old friend and boss.
And then last night something strange happened. I was walking down the street and sure enough I recognized my old friends house…as I drew near the house all of those old familiar hateful feelings too over and I couldn’t help but recall all of the details of what happened that day he fired me…the peremptory e-mail, the refusal to discuss the matter, the public announcement at a motivational rally…for crying out loud…at work where he announced to the whole company that “I…his friend” had “Failed to meet expectations in a company committ3ed to meeting expectations,” all that followed by the public request---blaring over loudspeakers for the whole world to hear---that I leave the meeting immediately, pick up my belongings at the front desk and never, ever return. All of these events…even though they happened 5 years ago…still felt fresh…raw…cruel…wrong.
And so all of the sudden I just got this urge…last night…standing in front of my old friend’s house to do something. Nothing major…just something….something to pay him back…I mean it wasn’t like I hadn’t felt the urge every day to do something to him…but tonight ….just for the fun of it really…I decided to do something small…yet symbolic…something I could get away with…something that would do no serious harm but would make me feel good…at least for a minute or two…you know? And so I decided to do what kids have been doing for years to neighbors they hate. I took a rock…one with jagged edges…and just like David downed Goliath…I took that rock and threw it at my old friend’s window with every bit of anger and frustration I could muster. I mean I wound up and let it fly…and just for a moment I felt happy. Victorious. Avenged.
But then it happened. You see my aim wasn’t so hot. Instead of smashing the window, the rock hit a drain pipe right next to the window and ricocheted back. And there I was, standing on the sidewalk below, my face eagerly upturned, grinning, expectation to saver this moment, but suddenly realizing that I was not the target of the very rock I had just thrown. And Unable to duck in time, the rock hit me head on…almost as if it was the plan all along. The stone hit me right on the bridge of my nose…and 10 minutes later I was in the emergency room getting stitches.
Pastor, I have never felt so humiliated in my life…and yet you know what…it made me think…
For 5 years now…I’ve lost my life to one single event. That’s all I’ve thought about…REVENGE…
Can you please teach me how I can start forgiving this guy…I’m sick of this feeling. You know instead of taking a stroll last night and enjoying the full moon and the cool summer breeze…I was plotting revenge. Imagine how many moments in my life had become contaminated with all this toxicity. Imagine how much time I have given to nursing this anger and keeping it alive. And you know what I’ve realized…the only person who has suffered through all of this has been me…I’m the one who is even in more pain! It’s like a cancer…a parasite. And it’s eating away at my life…Last night God told me…through a rock no less…that it’s time to stop.
{“Dare to Forgive” by Edward M. Hallowell, M.D. }
The pastor…sitting there in her chair…could only think of one thing…an old saying by Confucius that says “When you start down the road to revenge, first dig two graves” She didn’t share this saying with her parishioner… instead she started trying to figure out how to teach her new friend how to forgive.
We know we ought to forgive…I mean Jesus makes it pretty clear…Peter asks, “Rabbi should I forgive 7 times?” And Jesus says, “No…70 x 7 times!”
OK …OK….OK Jesus! We get it. We are supposed to forgive…But that doesn’t mean it’s easy…or even that we do it…we just know we should.
And even the medical community has come on board stating that forgiveness isn’t just a gift you give the one who wrongs you…but it’s a gift you give yourself. Forgiveness detoxifies our own hurt and hatred. Forgiveness sets me free to embrace all the good in my life ahead. Forgiveness improves your health. By improving your physical and emotional health and by increasing your chances of living longer. In fact its been proven medically that living with all of that anger and resentment can be as bad for you as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day or having high blood pressure, or an elevated level of cholesterol. In other words, anger and resentment can kill you.
So why is it that the things that are so good for us…taste so bad..ugh..Forgivness is so hard isn’t it?
Well, maybe not always.
Dr. Edward M. Hallowell…a medical doctor…writes a story in his book, “Dare to Forgive” about him and his wife getting into an argument early in their marriage. It was a silly argument really. He had wanted to take a different way home, but his wife was driving and she said, “No! We’re not going to take that way home…my way is the shortest way.”
And he crossed his arms and said, “You’re so stubborn…this is ridiculous!”
And she said, “Well you’re a jerk!” They didn’t speak the rest of the way home. They were locked into a fight neither of them had wanted, but neither one of them would back down either.
When they got home, they were still steaming. He stomped upstairs and went to bed. She stayed down in the kitchen. As he lay in his bed, brooking, he thought of how stupid this was…wondered how he could resolve it…so like most men…food came to mind…he quietly and gently called down to his wife and asked if she would please bring him a little snack when she came upstairs (what an idiot!). A few minutes later he could hear her stomp upstairs, swing the door open, and there was his snack…a single stalk of wilted celery…”Here’s your snack.”
There was a pause as they both took in her message. And then suddenly they both began to laugh. And suddenly that lock of pride and anger sprang open and instantly they were one again.
Sometimes that’s the way it happens…spontaneous.
By the way, if you go to Dr. Hallowell’s house and open up his refrigerator you’ll probably find a single stalk of celery in the fridge…just in case!
Wouldn’t it be great if that’s how easy it was all the time to forgive? If we could all just open up the refrigerator grab a single stalk of withered celery…wave it once or twice and Poof all was great again?
Unfortunately, that’s not the way it happens is it…in fact Forgiveness is probably the greatest and toughest task you and I are called to do as Christians.
You know I’m going to criticize Jesus for a moment…I know I’m not supposed to do that…but one of the problems with Jesus in dealing with forgiveness is that he tells us to do it…but he doesn’t tell us how to do it. How do you forgive? How do you let big things go? Big things that hurt our hearts and soul…that burn like salt on a wound.
How to do we go about this task of forgiveness?
Well, Dr. Edward M. Hallowell…in his book “Dare to Forgive” gives us some how tos.
And what he does is break the act of forgiveness into 4 different steps or acts.
Act I: Pain…acknowledge the pain…do you know how hard this is to do for Midwesterners. I mean we are stuff it people. We just grin and bear it…we have been taught for generation after generation that the best way to handle pain is to ignore it…pretend it isn’t there…It may seem like there is an elephant in the room…but we’re not about to admit it. Well Dr. Hallowell says “admit it…acknowledge it…find a good friend…a pastor…a counselor…someone kind of removed from the immediate problem…and spill it to them…just tell them your story…get it out in the open. Acknowledge the pain you have.
Act II: Relive what happened and reflect upon it…using your beliefs, intelligence, and imagination to guide you and ask this simple question “WHAT DO I WANT THIS PAIN TO TURN INTO?”
Grab yourself by your emotional collar and say, Stop! Think! Do you want more pain and misery? Do you want to keep recycling this same hurt over and over again day after day after day…or do you want change…growth…healing?
Act III. As you continue to wrestle within yourself and with others, as you heal…begin to work you way past anger and resentment to a place of peace. I know, I know what your thinking…But pastor Brook its is impossible for goodness to come out of all this pain…all this bad stuff…it’s impossible for growth and health and happiness to come out of insult, injury or even death. But I’m telling you it can…it has. Start reading about storied of forgiveness. History is full of story after story of amazing acts of forgiveness.
Do you remember that terrible horrible shooting in 2006? Where 5 Amish school children were slaughtered by a gunman who finally shot himself. It happened in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania…look it up if you don’t believe me. October of 2006. 5 of their children slaughtered and what did the Amish community respond with…RAGE…REVENGE…no. They, instead, chose to respond with a remarkable Christian witness. One of the first things the Amish did was to reach out to the gunman’s widow, and her children. They brought them food. They raised money to help them pay their bills (for, on top of everything else, that family had lost its principal wage-earner).
Ten days after the shootings, a bulldozer crashed through the walls of the Amish schoolhouse at Nickel Mines. Anyone familiar with the Amish knows bulldozers aren’t their style. They don’t use that kind of machinery — and, besides, they’re a thrifty bunch. When demolishing a building, they typically descend upon it with nail-pullers and crowbars, laboriously salvaging as much lumber as they can. It’s the opposite of one of their famous barn-raisings.
Yet, on this occasion, the Amish hired an outside, non-Amish contractor to drive his bulldozer through the building, reducing it to splinters. They wanted the world to see that they were absolutely determined to forgive and forget: and quickly. To them, that public witness was well worth the cost of hiring the bulldozer and giving up the salvage value of the scrap lumber.
You can have a story just as inspirational…if you learn to forgive.
I dare you.
And then Act IV: Take stock and move forward. As you work your way past the anger and resentment, start surveying the new ground you have found. You’ll begin to see that your life has changed for the better...you’ll begin to realize how much wiser you are as a person. And even more importantly, you will be given opportunities to help others in their struggle to forgive.
No one said it’s easy…but who ever said that good was easy.
Do you want to do something great…brave…even Godly? Start forgiving today.
You know the amazing thing about God…God is so different than we are…that’s what holy means you know…different. You see God…the God we have come to know in Jesus Christ…comes into our bedroom every night and throws us a wilted stick of celery and says….can we laugh this one off and start over….Every night God forgives us…and then dares us to pay it forward.
No that’s what I call Holy….
“There’s a wide-ness in God’s mercy.
Like the wide-ness of the sea.
There’s a kindness in God’s justice
That is more than liberty”
Monday, September 8, 2008
Sermon Sunday, Sept. 7th
CHANGING TIME
Sermon 1: “Hearing the Trumpet Call of Change”
Rev. Brook R. McBride
Ezekiel 33:1-11
Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008
Vermillion First UMC
It was just something different.
A little thing to kind of shake things up.
We were living in Wagner at the time.
My dad was the pastor of the Wagner United Methodist church and Dad had noticed that hardly anyone ever sat in the back chairs of the church (this, you see was a “modern” church…built in the 70s…and it had chairs instead of pews) and so Dad decided, one Sunday, that he would do something different….
He began the service just like normal…we had the call the worship…everyone stood and sang the processional hymn…everyone sat down…Mrs. Weber…who always sat in the 4th row yawned…I nudged my friend Tim Holman in the ribs…we both started laughing…she did that every Sunday….when all of the sudden things changed when my dad grabbed the pulpit…a “movable pulpit” (after all we were a “modern” church built in the 70s) and walked from the front of the church to the back of the church and asked everyone to turn their chairs around and face him….
And Dad’s sermon of course was on change….and even Tim Holman listened. I didn’t but he did…
That afternoon Dad got home and we ate dinner and then he went to take his nap….just as he was ready to dose off…the phone rang…and then it rang again…and again and again.
You’d think he had preached a sermon on the Vietnam War or something…..
People were upset –not with his sermon mind you…but with the changes at church that morning.
Change…what is it about change that scares us…that disturbs us….that gets under our skin…
Ezekiel was a prophet…an ancient word for “Change agent” His job…as he felt God was laying it out for him…was to get up on a high mountain and blow his trumpet….to warn the people of Israel that if they didn’t change their ways God was going to come down and get busy…. and punish them…things were gonna fall apart.
Do you know how hard of a job that is….to warn people who are comfortable…who think they are on top of their game…to say to the privileged bunch of society…”HEY…WOE IS YOU….YOU THERE UP ON THAT HILL MAKING $250,000 A YEAR…HEY YOU WITH THE HOUSE ON THE GOLF COURSE AND THE CLEANING LADY AND THE BMW….GOD WANTS YOU TO CHANGE!!!!!”
That’s a tough job…
Sometimes the prophets would get pretty frustrated about this job.
One of my favorite prophets is Amos…a farmer called by God to go visit the king and all the king’s party and tell them that they needed to stop partying away their lives…that they needed to quit wearing all their designer cloths…because there were people living right on down the hill that didn’t have enough food to eat. And so Amos tried and tried…and then one day he got so angry and frustrated with the Kings entourage that he walked right into one of their parties and looked at all of the King’s women drinking martinis and wearing all that fancy jewelry and he just blew his top….he pointed to those rich privileged women and he said “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"
He actually called the women of the king’s court “COWS OF BASHAN!” Can you imagine how that went over?
That reminds me of one of the speakers at annual conference this last year. She was trying to make the point that God’s revelation did not end with the Bible…that God continues to reveal Godself to us throughout all history…even now. And so to make her point…during one of her sermons…she took the bible that was on the alter and she lifted it up…it had been there for over 100 years mind you…donated to the church by one of the founding members of the church’s great grandfather...and she literally ripped off the back cover of the bible….as she was telling us this story she said…now you young pastors out there…you might better figure out a different way to illustrate this point to your congregation…that is if you don’t want to move every year that is….that wasn’t the wisest move I’ve ever made.
The people of Israel struggled with change….they struggled with the prophets words…
In fact, if you look at the life of most prophets, many of them were killed or almost killed by the very people they were trying to save….
Moses
Jesus
Luther
Martin Luther King Junior
The list could go on and on….being a prophet is dangerous work.
Why is it that we have so much trouble with change…?
This fall I’m trying something different….
I’ve decided to hire a “Life Coach”
Someone who would hold me to the fire and help me make the changes I need to make as I move through mid-life…
It’s been kind of a fun process for me…
But the hardest decision of all is to try to come up with the right life coach.
I finally had it down to two coaches…
One from this area…a nice guy…a guy like me…a guy I can sit down and just shoot the bull with…laugh…have a good time with…
And a guy who…well makes me a little uncomfortable…a guy who seems to see straight through me…a guy whose wound just a little too tightly
Now I’m going to have to say…every bone in my body…every sinew in my soul…wants to pick the nice guy…the "me in the mirror" guy…
But you know who I picked….the other one?
Why?
Because I really want to change this time…
And I know that change…real change…isn’t just about picking the low hanging fruit…I’ve done that before in my life…real change… real God transformation…real born from above transformation…
Means dying to some things
I had my first meeting with my life coach last week…we met on the phone…it was uncomfortable…I think it’s going to work.
A Caterpillar doesn’t become a butterfly without dying first.
The real colors of life…don’t come from comfort…they come from struggle.
That’s one of the frustrating things about politics for me these days.
Every single American…deep down in there souls…knows… when they look at the key issues…Global warming…war and terrorism…the oil crisis….the gap between the rich and the poor….ALL of us know that we need change.
But have you noticed that no one…when it really comes down to it…wants to do the hard work …. Or even say the hard words like sacrifice….especially as we get closer and closer to Election Day.
Obama preaches about checking the air pressure in your tires. Ooo that’s going to solve the oil crises.
McCain preaches about off shore drilling…ooo that’s really going to help us cut down on oil consumption.
Why can’t someone just get up there and preach what needs to be preached….we’ve all got to pitch in and sacrifice….
We’re gonna have to change our ways…
We’re gonna have to carpool…if need be…ration….
We’re going to have to take some drastic steps right now in order to make it…
We need to go green…we need to cut our fuel consumption…we need to stop making war…we need to start making peace….NOW
I joke about it, but I seriously think our church should look into buying a windmill for the top of our church building…and some solar panels…and get some recycling containers for the back of our church that people could put their recyclables in…
We need to do these things now…
I know I sound kind of crazy don’t I…
Maybe I am...
But change is crazy sometimes.
Brian McLaren has just written a great book called “Everything must Change”
And in the forward he writes about the risks of entitling any book with the word change in it…
“If you’re like some people (including my wife…), you may already feel a little skeptical and suspicious, having only read the title and subtitle of this book.
You’ve surmised that the statement “everything must change” is hyperbole. Whatever your reaction to the subtitle’s mention of “Jesus” and “Revolution of hope,” You’ve judged “Global crises” to be totally depressing and overwhelming. You’ve determined that people who talk about global crises aren’t life of the party types; instead, they score big in the categories of being boring, humorless, and guilt-inducing.
If we’re going to get anywhere, I have to convince you---and fast---of at least four things…First, that I’m not another blah-blah-blah person ranting about how bad the world is and how guilty you should feel for taking up space in it….”””
And now you know why I just kind of joke about it…because if I told you I was really serious about it…well…I’d turn into another blah-blah-blah person ranting and raving?
Well we all know why no politician who wants to be president says that stuff….because they won’t be elected and they know it.
And so on we go…picking the low fruit while we ride into the sunset on the titanic…
I don’t want a little shift in my life…I want a deep abiding shift.
And I make this bold statement at the same time I’m struggling with getting up the energy and taking the time to recycle in my own home…I’m terrible at it…I’m lazy…
It’s so much easier to just dump it into the garbage isn’t it?
CHANGE IS HARD WORK….Do we have what it takes to change?
And yet…it’s such a powerful thing…change.
Have you ever met someone who’s changed for the better?
Story of Overweight guy in Zan Holmes church…
He was fun to be around…he was inspiring to be around…he was infectious….he made me want to get up and run 5 miles and row ten…and bike 15 and throw away my car keys.
This fall we’re not just going to explore changes we want to make…we’re going to deeper than that…to explore changes God wants us to make….both personal changes …changes here in this church community…and changes that we can help the world make together.
So I’d like you to take some time this week…praying…listening for God’s voice…15 minutes a day….I mean it…try it…asking God (don’t just make the decision in two minutes) but asking God …searching deep within your heart…where your life needs to change..
Breath Prayer…
Restless Spirit …guide my heart.
Sermon 1: “Hearing the Trumpet Call of Change”
Rev. Brook R. McBride
Ezekiel 33:1-11
Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008
Vermillion First UMC
It was just something different.
A little thing to kind of shake things up.
We were living in Wagner at the time.
My dad was the pastor of the Wagner United Methodist church and Dad had noticed that hardly anyone ever sat in the back chairs of the church (this, you see was a “modern” church…built in the 70s…and it had chairs instead of pews) and so Dad decided, one Sunday, that he would do something different….
He began the service just like normal…we had the call the worship…everyone stood and sang the processional hymn…everyone sat down…Mrs. Weber…who always sat in the 4th row yawned…I nudged my friend Tim Holman in the ribs…we both started laughing…she did that every Sunday….when all of the sudden things changed when my dad grabbed the pulpit…a “movable pulpit” (after all we were a “modern” church built in the 70s) and walked from the front of the church to the back of the church and asked everyone to turn their chairs around and face him….
And Dad’s sermon of course was on change….and even Tim Holman listened. I didn’t but he did…
That afternoon Dad got home and we ate dinner and then he went to take his nap….just as he was ready to dose off…the phone rang…and then it rang again…and again and again.
You’d think he had preached a sermon on the Vietnam War or something…..
People were upset –not with his sermon mind you…but with the changes at church that morning.
Change…what is it about change that scares us…that disturbs us….that gets under our skin…
Ezekiel was a prophet…an ancient word for “Change agent” His job…as he felt God was laying it out for him…was to get up on a high mountain and blow his trumpet….to warn the people of Israel that if they didn’t change their ways God was going to come down and get busy…. and punish them…things were gonna fall apart.
Do you know how hard of a job that is….to warn people who are comfortable…who think they are on top of their game…to say to the privileged bunch of society…”HEY…WOE IS YOU….YOU THERE UP ON THAT HILL MAKING $250,000 A YEAR…HEY YOU WITH THE HOUSE ON THE GOLF COURSE AND THE CLEANING LADY AND THE BMW….GOD WANTS YOU TO CHANGE!!!!!”
That’s a tough job…
Sometimes the prophets would get pretty frustrated about this job.
One of my favorite prophets is Amos…a farmer called by God to go visit the king and all the king’s party and tell them that they needed to stop partying away their lives…that they needed to quit wearing all their designer cloths…because there were people living right on down the hill that didn’t have enough food to eat. And so Amos tried and tried…and then one day he got so angry and frustrated with the Kings entourage that he walked right into one of their parties and looked at all of the King’s women drinking martinis and wearing all that fancy jewelry and he just blew his top….he pointed to those rich privileged women and he said “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, "Bring us some drinks!"
He actually called the women of the king’s court “COWS OF BASHAN!” Can you imagine how that went over?
That reminds me of one of the speakers at annual conference this last year. She was trying to make the point that God’s revelation did not end with the Bible…that God continues to reveal Godself to us throughout all history…even now. And so to make her point…during one of her sermons…she took the bible that was on the alter and she lifted it up…it had been there for over 100 years mind you…donated to the church by one of the founding members of the church’s great grandfather...and she literally ripped off the back cover of the bible….as she was telling us this story she said…now you young pastors out there…you might better figure out a different way to illustrate this point to your congregation…that is if you don’t want to move every year that is….that wasn’t the wisest move I’ve ever made.
The people of Israel struggled with change….they struggled with the prophets words…
In fact, if you look at the life of most prophets, many of them were killed or almost killed by the very people they were trying to save….
Moses
Jesus
Luther
Martin Luther King Junior
The list could go on and on….being a prophet is dangerous work.
Why is it that we have so much trouble with change…?
This fall I’m trying something different….
I’ve decided to hire a “Life Coach”
Someone who would hold me to the fire and help me make the changes I need to make as I move through mid-life…
It’s been kind of a fun process for me…
But the hardest decision of all is to try to come up with the right life coach.
I finally had it down to two coaches…
One from this area…a nice guy…a guy like me…a guy I can sit down and just shoot the bull with…laugh…have a good time with…
And a guy who…well makes me a little uncomfortable…a guy who seems to see straight through me…a guy whose wound just a little too tightly
Now I’m going to have to say…every bone in my body…every sinew in my soul…wants to pick the nice guy…the "me in the mirror" guy…
But you know who I picked….the other one?
Why?
Because I really want to change this time…
And I know that change…real change…isn’t just about picking the low hanging fruit…I’ve done that before in my life…real change… real God transformation…real born from above transformation…
Means dying to some things
I had my first meeting with my life coach last week…we met on the phone…it was uncomfortable…I think it’s going to work.
A Caterpillar doesn’t become a butterfly without dying first.
The real colors of life…don’t come from comfort…they come from struggle.
That’s one of the frustrating things about politics for me these days.
Every single American…deep down in there souls…knows… when they look at the key issues…Global warming…war and terrorism…the oil crisis….the gap between the rich and the poor….ALL of us know that we need change.
But have you noticed that no one…when it really comes down to it…wants to do the hard work …. Or even say the hard words like sacrifice….especially as we get closer and closer to Election Day.
Obama preaches about checking the air pressure in your tires. Ooo that’s going to solve the oil crises.
McCain preaches about off shore drilling…ooo that’s really going to help us cut down on oil consumption.
Why can’t someone just get up there and preach what needs to be preached….we’ve all got to pitch in and sacrifice….
We’re gonna have to change our ways…
We’re gonna have to carpool…if need be…ration….
We’re going to have to take some drastic steps right now in order to make it…
We need to go green…we need to cut our fuel consumption…we need to stop making war…we need to start making peace….NOW
I joke about it, but I seriously think our church should look into buying a windmill for the top of our church building…and some solar panels…and get some recycling containers for the back of our church that people could put their recyclables in…
We need to do these things now…
I know I sound kind of crazy don’t I…
Maybe I am...
But change is crazy sometimes.
Brian McLaren has just written a great book called “Everything must Change”
And in the forward he writes about the risks of entitling any book with the word change in it…
“If you’re like some people (including my wife…), you may already feel a little skeptical and suspicious, having only read the title and subtitle of this book.
You’ve surmised that the statement “everything must change” is hyperbole. Whatever your reaction to the subtitle’s mention of “Jesus” and “Revolution of hope,” You’ve judged “Global crises” to be totally depressing and overwhelming. You’ve determined that people who talk about global crises aren’t life of the party types; instead, they score big in the categories of being boring, humorless, and guilt-inducing.
If we’re going to get anywhere, I have to convince you---and fast---of at least four things…First, that I’m not another blah-blah-blah person ranting about how bad the world is and how guilty you should feel for taking up space in it….”””
And now you know why I just kind of joke about it…because if I told you I was really serious about it…well…I’d turn into another blah-blah-blah person ranting and raving?
Well we all know why no politician who wants to be president says that stuff….because they won’t be elected and they know it.
And so on we go…picking the low fruit while we ride into the sunset on the titanic…
I don’t want a little shift in my life…I want a deep abiding shift.
And I make this bold statement at the same time I’m struggling with getting up the energy and taking the time to recycle in my own home…I’m terrible at it…I’m lazy…
It’s so much easier to just dump it into the garbage isn’t it?
CHANGE IS HARD WORK….Do we have what it takes to change?
And yet…it’s such a powerful thing…change.
Have you ever met someone who’s changed for the better?
Story of Overweight guy in Zan Holmes church…
He was fun to be around…he was inspiring to be around…he was infectious….he made me want to get up and run 5 miles and row ten…and bike 15 and throw away my car keys.
This fall we’re not just going to explore changes we want to make…we’re going to deeper than that…to explore changes God wants us to make….both personal changes …changes here in this church community…and changes that we can help the world make together.
So I’d like you to take some time this week…praying…listening for God’s voice…15 minutes a day….I mean it…try it…asking God (don’t just make the decision in two minutes) but asking God …searching deep within your heart…where your life needs to change..
Breath Prayer…
Restless Spirit …guide my heart.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
September 28th Matthew 21:23-35
In this passage Jesus is talking to the pharisees and he says...right at the end of the passage..."and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him." What a zinger! It seems to me that Jesus is saying that a disciple is one who has an open mind...who is willing to let God change his or her mind.
Have you ever had a moment where you completely changed your mind....over politics?
Over a relationship? Over a career choice?
What caused you to change your mind?
What's your mind concerning God right now?
Are you open to God?
Have you ever had a moment where you completely changed your mind....over politics?
Over a relationship? Over a career choice?
What caused you to change your mind?
What's your mind concerning God right now?
Are you open to God?
Sept. 21st Jonah 3:10-4:11
This passage just blows my mind! The first verse is key. And God decides to change God's mind!
Wow! The angle that I'm going from here is that if God can change God's mind...why can't we.
We always think of God as steady and never changing. But in the passage in Jonah God changes God's mind!
So let's turn that a bit.
Have you ever changed your mind concerning God?
Has there ever been a moment in your life where you're understanding of God was challenged?
By life? By someone else? By a situation?
How did your understanding of God change? Why?
Wow! The angle that I'm going from here is that if God can change God's mind...why can't we.
We always think of God as steady and never changing. But in the passage in Jonah God changes God's mind!
So let's turn that a bit.
Have you ever changed your mind concerning God?
Has there ever been a moment in your life where you're understanding of God was challenged?
By life? By someone else? By a situation?
How did your understanding of God change? Why?
Sept. 14th Matthew 18:21-35
These are Jesus' favorite words about forgiveness...7x70! Wow!
The thought that I had when reading this is that many of us can't change because we're not able to let the past go...to forgive it!
What baggage of the past are you holding on to?
How heavy is it?
How can God help you to let it go?
What do you struggle to forgive?
The thought that I had when reading this is that many of us can't change because we're not able to let the past go...to forgive it!
What baggage of the past are you holding on to?
How heavy is it?
How can God help you to let it go?
What do you struggle to forgive?
Sept. 7th Ezekiel 33: 1-11
Ezekiel so himself as God's trumpet.
He felt called to shout out a warning to God's people.
Who are some modern day trumpets?
When have you heard God warning you to change?
What is God calling you to do now...in your life...in the world?
He felt called to shout out a warning to God's people.
Who are some modern day trumpets?
When have you heard God warning you to change?
What is God calling you to do now...in your life...in the world?
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