GENESIS PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

Monday, January 16, 2012

15 January 2012 Glorify God John 1:43-51

15 January 2012 Glorify God John 1:43-51

This morning we will install two session elders, Jeff Woodruff and Duane Hiller for the class of 2015. These two have heard God’s call to serve the church and they have answered that call. I know you will join me in thanking them in advance for their service to God, to this church, and to our wider world.

A day like today may bring memories of those times God nudged you to service in God’s kingdom. God’s serving community has so many faces. Why, our joining with family to be family may have been our very first call. As we grew older God had a way of nudging us on beyond our first family to school, from school to work and perhaps another family, from another family to community and yes, church. So many times we have found ourselves on our knees trying to understand God’s call, trying to discern God’s will.

Often lost in our prayer for discernment is God’s affirmation, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” We do not choose God, but God choses us. God reminds us this morning through John’s gospel this call business is all God’s doings. It is God’s doing that we are found by God and sent into God’s kingdom. It is God who equips us and chooses us for kingdom building. The call of God is to all believers, not just to these two good folks this morning.
The evidence is before us. All in these pews this morning are gifted and equipped by God. Now do not try and deny it! We know it to be true here at Genesis for each of you have unique gifts, a special calling.

Being so gifted by God began with those early disciples whom he desired. God desired to have them and gifted them with three special assignments: to preach the gospel, to heal the sick and to be with him. The first two assignments are task specific, preach and heal. The third, to be with him, is often overlooked.
To always be close to Jesus can be risky. Being with him means we have to be so close that we know where he is going and what he will do next, and with whom. Knowing Jesus took risks with people, places, and events makes us uneasy when we hear God’s call to be with Jesus in his ministry. Knowing Jesus’s ways we may hesitate, we may stand motionless, before we commit to let God use us where God leads. For where God leads we may not want to go.
In our hesitation, our motionless, we may truthfully and honestly wonder. How could this be God calling me to this way? Where did God come to know me so well God can direct my life? We know God know us. God is God after all. But how do we know when it is God calling and not our own desire or that of the evil one?

In our Gospel story this morning Nathanael sounds like us. He asks Jesus, “How do you know me?” “Who have you been talking to about me?” “We’ve never met, have we?” Jesus answers, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.” How does Jesus know Nathanael? Jesus knew him before anyone knew him, even before he was born.

One of my favorite Psalms is Psalm 139. It begins, “O Lord, you have searched me and know me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.” God knows us before we know ourselves!

Jesus saw Nathanael under a fig tree before Philip found him. Jesus saw Nathanael before he was born. Nathanael now understands who this Jesus is. Nathanael has experienced the revealing of a deeper truth than he could have ever imagined on a regular day hanging out under a fig tree waiting for his buddies to come by so they could go and do what guys do. No, this will not be that sort of day.

Jesus spoke and it was revealed to Nathanael that his invitation to come and see for himself the one about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth, came not from Phillip, but from the Messiah himself. Jesus invited Nathanael, calling him to come and see, and Nathanael realized Philip was right, they had found the one who was to be Messiah.

With this new found knowledge, Nathanael quickly confesses, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.” Nathanael’s response becomes for us a powerful confessional confirmation of who Jesus is, the one coming to save the world. It also speaks in a real sense of the mutual recognition possible through Jesus, one of knowing and being known, seeing and being seen.
In our Old Testament reading Samuel also has a strange encounter of sorts. He is awakened from his sleep by the Lord calling his name, “Samuel, Samuel,” and he said, “Here I am,” and then thinking Eli had called him he ran to him there in the room where he was asleep. But Eli said, I did not call you, lie down again. This happens two more times before Eli finally realizes that Samuel is hearing the Lord call to him. Eli tells Samuel to go, lie down; and if he calls you again, you shall say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” This response, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening” becomes our biblical response when we sense God is calling; first be open to God’s speaking, then listen and respond.

Samuel, like our newly elected and soon to be installed elders, is to be established as the rightful bearer of God’s word and authority. He begins, and we begin the same way, by learning to listen and then learning to respond.
First, to listen and be sure it is God calling and not our own personal messenger and then, to respond, to reach out and attach ourselves to the ministry God has for us. We all belong to God. God uses each of us. God uses our mind, our body, and our spirit in ways that are nothing short of a miracle, in ways that are clearly God’s freely given grace.

I read in a recent Christian Century magazine article that on their own neither Samuel nor Nathanael are able to interpret these strange encounters. Samuel doesn’t recognize God’s voice, and Nathanael is puzzled by Jesus’ origins, and then by his extraordinary ability to know and see.

But both of them are portrayed as truthful, and the childlike innocence in Samuel is reflected in a description of Nathanael as an Israelite in whom there is “no deceit.” No cunning, no spin, no dishonesty, just a purity of heart that helps open their eyes to see God.

The good news for us this third Sunday of the New Year is that in our innocence and with Jesus’ help our eyes have been opened to see God. On our own we are not able to know about these strange encounters. On our own we don’t know if God is calling us or it is some telemarketer or our own driven egos. On our own the competing voices pull us further from God and we lose our authentic Christian selves.

Jeff and Duane have responded to God’s call. They have recognized a kindred spirit in our Lord. They have prayed and listened and heard and believed and realized the risk of accepting a call to serve God’s church as an officer and member of session. A risk they enter into freely, I trust!

The New Testament tells us that when the apostles started churches they appointed elders to govern the congregations in their absence. Although it is not certain what the elders’ responsibilities were in the early church, their position was clearly one of honor. We do know from scripture they were expected to exhibit the highest moral character. Elders were to be compassionate, humble, and eager to serve the congregation like a shepherd, following the example of Christ.

The responsibilities of those we elect as elders is clearly stated in the Book of Order. They are to encourage the congregation in the worship of God, they are to equip the church in mission in the world, they are to comfort and care for the sick with special attention to the poor and the oppressed, and they are to serve in the higher governing bodies of the church.
Our session, with the exception of certain rights and privileges granted to the congregation and pastor, has virtual oversight of all the spiritual, educational, and practical activities of this church.

As Presbyterians, we believe that the Holy Spirit works best in our church through the will of the people as represented by these good folk we install this morning. They are good and faithful shepherds who are concerned solely with the health of our church and the work of God’s kingdom.
I imagine they have been surprised by their encounter with the living God, calling them to a leadership position in this church. We’ve all been there. Surprised and frightened and humbled at the same time. Encounters when God calls us are like that.

For his part, Nathanael was surprised to be invited to come and see for himself that Jesus was the chosen one. What frightened him was the realization he was known so intimately by Jesus. For his part, Samuel thought Eli was calling his name. Instead, it was God calling him.

We are called to come and see this Jesus who knew us before we were born and knows us so intimately know. We may think it is this church or the Nominating Committee perhaps that calls our name. It is God calling us. And we celebrate all those who come and see.
For we see who has called us to servant discipleship. We hear his call every day and we come. We come so we may be authentically who we are called to be, followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the King of Israel!

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever more. Amen

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Sunday, January 1, 2012

01 January 2012 “What’s up with this?” Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7

01 January 2012 “What’s up with this?” Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7

It may be the best question to ask this first Sunday of the New Year. What’s up with this? Was Jesus really born for us to treat him this way?
How far have we gone from worship to silly human distraction?
David Davis of Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, NJ tells the story of a Christmas pageant with significant issues. Mrs. Smith, the pageant director, was only in her first year as the volunteer in charge, and if David is honest, it would probably be her last.

As David tells it, “Nightmare” might be too strong a word to ever use for a Christmas pageant, but that years might qualify. After all, the term “perfect Christmas pageant” is an oxymoron. Christmas pageants are going to have rough edges. However, on this particular evening, as the pageant played on, Mrs. Smith was just a bit taken aback by the sharpness of those edges.

Mary had been sick all morning and the bucket next to the manger was for her. Joseph was thirteen now and decided about ten days ago that he wasn’t going to enjoy this pageant at all. When the animals arrived behind the shepherds, any hope of heavenly peace vanished. They took over the whole chancel and elevated “lowing” to a new, loud, hip-hop, rap sounding art form.

Right near the end, just before everyone was to sing “Joy to the World the Lord is come” and “He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness,” the narrator, Jerod, literally fought his way to center stage for his last line. He stepped on and over sheep and cows. Mary was reaching for the bucket, and Joseph had rolled his eyes so many times they just about fell out of his head.

So Jerod had to shout over the barnyard noise. Finally, in desperation, he put his folder down and stretched out his arms and with no little amount of exasperation, yelled, “Christ was born for this?”

Mrs. Smith, now fully exhausted, said to no one in particular, “it was an exclamation point, not a question mark.”

However, some years it does feel more like a question mark, doesn’t’ it? Christ was born for this? Some years the pageantry of life seems to not be like a chancel drama, but a pageant of life itself.

That is how William Muehl once described it. “This rich pageant of life is often fouled up,” “Fouled up by our rigid moralism, and the cross is hidden beneath the flimsy fabric of our simple piety . . . Our flesh drives and afflicts us from birth to death.”

You and I, we find ourselves stepping on and over so much as we make our way across life’s stage. Every year in this family of faith, somebody heads to Bethlehem by way of the grave, because death has an unceasing part to play. Every year, for some it is Christmas carols and tears as the earthiness of the flesh has torn at relationships, or the brutality of disease has torn at the flesh. Christ was born for this?

This year, like every year, we come face to face with flesh not just torn but destroyed. There are places in our world destroyed by war, torn by economic distress or natural disaster and nations proving something other than the “glories of his righteousness.” Yet we sing “peace on earth and good will to all,” not just once or twice, but over and over again.
It was not too long ago that Jesus made the cover of both Time and Newsweek. When such an appearance happens to be around Christmas, we can expect some conversation about the birth narratives found in the gospels of Luke and Mark. The headlines tell the story, “Behind the First Noel: How the story of Christ’s birth came to be” and “The Birth of Jesus: from Mary to the manger, how the Gospels mix faith and history to tell the Christmas story and make the case for Christ.”

Writers in both magazines engaged scholarly opinions to raise critical issues surrounding the Virgin Birth, and the importance of Bethlehem, and the questions of numbers in terms of the Magi, and whether or not the star was Haley’s Comet.

When turning to the question of why this all makes a difference, both magazines looked to the message of the angel in Luke: “For to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
“A simple, joyous proclamation of salvation,” one writer concluded. “On earth peace, good will toward all,” cited the other writer, calling it “a promise whose fulfillment is worth our prayers not only in this season, but always.” One concludes with a simple proclamation of salvation; the other a sweeping prayer for peace. As important as both may be we still find ourselves asking, Christ was born for this?

The reader of Time and Newsweek ought to be turning pages looking for more, looking for what is missing, looking for why this nativity of Christ would have anything to do with you or me.

Perhaps what they fail to consider is that Christ came that you and I might be justified by faith. “In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,” the scriptures tell us. “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.”

That is what is missing. If you “belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” These words come to us from the Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Galatians. It is his approach to the birth of Jesus. “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” No angels; no shepherds; no Magi; no star. You and I, we are adopted as children of God. Christ was born for this!

We can remember growing up and as recently as this past Christmas Eve standing in our sanctuary to sing “Silent Night.” The candlelight would spread, and some would sing with tears streaming down their cheeks. The pew might even shake a bit. We might even say that was the night we learned it was safe to cry in church.

But we learned something far greater about faith and God’s promise. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” That is God’s promise, hear and now, in the very earthiness of life. Such fullness of time belongs to God in those moments when in that exact earthiness of our lives, we come face to face with the promise of God. “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” The nativity of the Christ Child enters into our own mundane lives and there are additional truths that become self-evident.

God has promised us; “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13)

“I am persuaded that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:38-39)

“I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt 28:20)

“My peace I leave with you, not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (Jn 14:27)

“Come unto me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” (Mt 11:28)

“I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”(Jn 6:35)
“This is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” (Lk 22:19)

Somewhere this rich pageant of life is unfolding. Somewhere a child of God is moving to center stage, stepping on and over more than an abundance of life’s joys and challenges clawing at her feet. Few will pay attention and she will have to shout over the world’s noise. But for her, it is the fullness of time, with a heart stretched out to God, she will proclaim, not with a question mark, but with an exclamation point: “Christ was born for this!”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever more. Amen

Additional sources:
“Lectionary Homiletics,” Volume XVII, Number 1, 45-47.

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