Tuesday, September 29, 2009

I made them laugh. I made them cry. No, really. They cried.

www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com

Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com

"Year of the Bible" Q&As and Pastor's Reflection
(See, I'm catching up! We have questions AND a reflection this week. Can't remember the last time I had those done by my Sunday deadline!)

Here's the question of the day:
Tuesday: What is faith? (Hebrews 11)

And here's the answer to yesterday's question:
What does the Sovereign Lord, the one who gathers the exiles of Israel, declare? (Isaiah 56)
Isaiah 56:8 8 The Sovereign LORD declares-- he who gathers the exiles of Israel: "I will gather still others to them besides those already gathered."

And here's the reflection of the day:
"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Heb 11:1)

Pardon me for wandering down the path of nostalgia, but that is where I am heading this morning in Hebrews 11.

This passage was the text of my first sermon waaaaay back when I was a senior in high school. It was youth Sunday and the seniors traditionally took charge of the sermon portion of the service. I can't even remember now how many others of us preached, I just know that was my debut in the pulpit.

I made them laugh. I made them cry. No, really. They cried. Several of the older ladies came up to me after the sermon and told me they cried. I was surprised, to say the least. (I don't think any of my other sermons have had that effect!)

To this day, I still don't exactly understand what happened during that sermon. I didn't think it was especially profound or even terribly moving. What does an 18 year old know about preaching a sermon??

I just looked at Hebrews 11, thought about that definition of "faith" and tried to find a place in my life that I saw my own faith in action.

Faith happened on the stage of my high school auditorium with a girl named Heather. Heather was developmentally delayed, lagging behind the rest of us. I never had a chance to interact with her before we started spring musical practices. We were both in the chorus, and in the times between when we were onstage, Heather needed someone to occupy her time. And so I became that occupation.

It didn't occur to me until later how grateful the adults involved in the musical must have been to me because normally, Heather would have attached herself to them. Instead, I occupied her during the down times and made sure she entered and exited the stage at the right time.

Faith for me was being sure that God wanted me to be nice to Heather, even when I wanted to spend time with my other friends. Faith for me was being certain that God had put Heather in my life, and even if I didn't understand the reason, He still wanted me to be kind to her.

To this day, I don't know exactly what the purpose of our 3 month relationship together on the stage was all about. All I know is that I still get postcards from Heather when her family goes on vacation, which I recognize by her childlike handwriting. And just this morning, one of the emails waiting for me was from Heather, a forward she sent along because it made her happy and she wanted to make others happy too.

Faith is doing something we know is right even if we do not understand why.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Sunday Sermon: "Naked Streets"

http://www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com/

Check out the church site too!
http://www.frankfortpresbychurch.com/

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Please pray with me: Holy Spirit, as the Scripture is read, open our hearts and minds to hear the truth; shine your light into our dark places; convict us where our hearts have been hardened; and call us to respond with joy to your Word to us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

INTRODUCTION TO SCRIPTURE
I think we are all pretty familiar with the first Exodus event—when God freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and led them through the wilderness and into the Promised Land. But did you know there was actually a SECOND exodus event? There is a second time that Israel ended up getting kicked out of their homeland and put into slavery in Babylon.

That’s what the book of Isaiah is all about—the second Exodus. In particular, our reading this morning is encouraging the Israelites, who are in the midst of the second Exodus and probably feeling pretty sorry for themselves, to forget about the things in their past and to look ahead to the “new thing” God is doing for them.

SCRIPTURE READING: Isaiah 43:18-25
18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?

I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. 20 The wild animals honor me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the desert and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

22 "Yet you have not called upon me, O Jacob, you have not wearied yourselves for me, O Israel. 23 You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense. 24 You have not bought any fragrant calamus for me, or lavished on me the fat of your sacrifices. But you have burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your offenses.

25 "I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

SERMON-INTRO
It’s weird that God is telling the Israelites, through Isaiah, NOT to dwell in the past and remember the former things. God is ALWAYS telling the Israelites to remember their past, right? Before this, He always calls them to remember back to the Exodus . . . to remember the Sabbath and keep it holy . . . to remember the commandments of God.

In fact, forgetting was what got them in so much trouble in the first place. Usually, they are getting yelled at because they have forgotten how faithful God has been to them. When they forget all that God has done for them, they get themselves into hot water.

So, what’s up with God now saying, “Forget the former things; do not dwell in the past.” Why is he suddenly telling them to stop looking backwards.

Apparently, God wants them now to focus on something else. “See, I am doing a new thing,” God is telling them. “I am doing a new thing and I want you to be looking FORWARD now, instead of backwards all the time.”

#1
Essentially God is telling the Israelites this: all those things used to guide your lives, all the signs you counted on in your past—they’re all going to be gone, because now I am doing a new thing.
It’s like this: imagine if one day, someone took down all the road signs. Every stop sign, every traffic light, every speed limit sign, every street name sign, even the lines on the road—all gone overnight. The streets would be naked.

Suddenly all the traffic laws that we had to learn to get our drivers’ licenses, all those rules that we obey to keep us safe on the roads are gone. What do you think would happen? Well, what do YOU think would happen?

City planners in Holland, Germany, and Denmark are actually trying this.[1] It sounds like a recipe for disaster, BUT they are finding it actually makes the roads SAFER and that travel times are actually FASTER than with signs and lights.

They have found that by removing traffic lights and signage, drivers and bike riders and pedestrians are FORCED to make eye contact and adapt to the flow of traffic, rather than just focusing on a red or green light and plowing ahead.

Without lights and signs and lines on the road, everyone SLOWS DOWN. Everyone calms down.
There’s no chaos, no horns honking, no road raging, no obscene hand signals. The selfishness of driving—wanting to be first in line, to go the fastest, not wanting to wait—all those things of the past are gone and a new thing is emerging: civility is emerging. The golden rule is in effect each time a driver gets in the car.

In Holland, Germany, and Denmark, people are taught to forget the things of the past because a new thing is happening. This is exactly what God is trying to tell the Israelites.

#2
How would you feel if you woke up to come to church this morning and there were no signs or lines or speed limits? You’d probably be pretty uncomfortable about it. Maybe even a little afraid. I mean, maybe it would be ok if you were trying to go from here to Burgettstown or Weirton—we don’t need signs to get us to those places. But what if we needed to get to Indiana or Kentucky or Massachusetts?

We’d feel lost! We LIKE directional signs. We don’t want to give them up. We LIKE rules—we get nervous when there aren’t any rules, or when we don’t know the rules.

That’s EXACTLY how the Israelites felt when God told them to forget about the past. All their road signs were gone—“Do not remember the former things, God says, do not dwell in the past.”
But maybe God intends for this lack of signage to actually BE the sign for them. Maybe this lack of signage—this turning away from what is familiar in their past toward what is unfamiliar in their future—is God’s way of helping the Israelites to slow down, making them more careful and more cautious, like driving on a street with no signs.

Maybe we, like the Israelites, are too busy looking for signs that we don’t notice what’s right in front of our faces. Or rather, what’s right inside our own hearts. God has written all we need to know—all the signs we could ever ask for—on each of our hearts. Jeremiah says it like this: “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jer 31.33).

And we have Jesus, who is God-with-us, and the Holy Spirit, who is our companion in the journey of faith. The signs we really need for how to live our lives aren’t found out there; we have all we need in here.

CONCLUSION
Christians shouldn’t really need signs from God. We shouldn’t need a sign that says “be kind to this person because they’re having a hard time.” We shouldn’t need a sign that has eight sides and is outlined in red that says, “Forgive.” Or a sign that is shaped like a triangle that says, “Feed the hungry here.”

We know what we should do. We don’t really needs signs telling us what the right thing to do is.

The city planners who have given up signs say that if you treat people like idiots—and plaster a million signs all over the place—people will act like idiots.[2] If you remove the signs and treat people as intelligent and compassionate, they will respond in kind.

God sees us in the same way. God gave us a brain to think and a spirit with which to pray, and hands to reach out to others. It’s not that complicated to figure out how God wants us to live.
If you love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, then you know how to follow God.

Once you get the hang of it, I think you’ll discover that you don’t actually need those signs after all.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.


[1] http://www.contextsensitivesolutions.org/news/item?item_id=41000
[2] http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/btl_display.asp?installment_id=93000120

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Back to the Tabernacle

www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com

Pastor's Reflection
Hebrews 9 describes Jesus as the high priest for all time and all people.

If you think back to our time earlier this year in the "Year of the Bible," you recognize what the first couple of verses of the chapter are describing: the Tabernacle . . . with the lampstand and the bread, the curtain and the altar, the ark of the covenant. The priests and Levites only entered the outer room. Only the high priest entered the inner room, and only then on the day of atonement.

Hebrews interprets this ritual of Judaism in the context of Christianity, in light of Christ. In the Jewish tabernacle, only one man is allowed to enter, once and for always. That never changes. But Hebrews is telling us that, in the light of Christ, there is a new way into the tabernacle, a way in for ANY person, not just the high priest.

Through the blood of Christ (not goats, bulls, or heifers), believers are cleansed from the acts that lead to death, and are led into acts that serve the living God.

So then Christ becomes the mediator of a new covenant, sealed in the blood of the perfect, unblemished Lamb of God. "Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him."

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Anchor in a Storm

http://www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com/


Check out the church site too!
http://www.frankfortpresbychurch.com/


Pastor's Reflection
Maybe it's just me (and I don't think it is), but life seems a little stormy right now. Conditions on a global and local scale leave me feeling a little uncertain of my place in the world. And that allows a little bit of anxiety to sneak into the back of my mind.

Life, for me at least, is generally peaceful and smooth sailing. But every once in a while, a sudden squall blows into my part of the harbor. And my little ship starts to rock.

What is it that keeps a ship anchored in the midst of a squall? An anchor. A solid anchor.

Hebrews 6 reminds us of "an anchor for the soul, firm and secure (v 19)." What is that anchor? you may ask.

Hope . . . hope that God is unchanging and will keep the promises he made to his heirs (v 18). God offers us this anchor, this hope, in order to that we "may be greatly encouraged" (v 18) in the midst of the storms and squalls of life.

Drop the anchor for your soul down deep into God's hope, that it may hold secure the next the time waves of life threaten to drag you out of the harbor and toss your little ship out to sea.

Monday, September 21, 2009

My Favorite Chapter

www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com

"Year of the Bible" Pastor's Reflection

Reflection of the day:
I've been slacking off a bit in the blogging department, for which I apologize. (And yes, I have gotten behind in my readings, too. Don't feel like you're the only one!) In my flurry of preparations for Sunday, I didn't even get any questions written either.

Technically, Isaiah 40 was a reading for yesterday (09.20.09) BUT it is my favorite chapter in the whole Bible, so I hope you'll grant me a little grace and allow me to write about that instead of one of today's reading.

Isaiah 40, especially verses 25-31, is my favorite for a very simple reason. And it's maybe not the reason you'd expect. And maybe it's not the best reason in the world, but that doesn't matter. It's my favorite chapter because when I read it for the first time, I got goosebumps.

See, I told you it was a simple reason.

I was in. . . maybe 9th grade? . . . and I was at youth group one night. I don't remember what the lesson was about or what the current topic of discussion was. All I know is that I read those verses and I had a physical reaction to them. I didn't know why. I'm not sure I understand it even today.

I know I had read the Bible before that--even memorizing verses in Sunday School. But for whatever reason, for the first time, this Scripture really sunk into my brain. (Or maybe it really sunk into my heart?)

So this is the chapter I come back to when I need assurance ("Comfort, comfort my people, says your God") or when I get a little big for my britches ("To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One) or when I need a little something extra to keep me going (". . . but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.")

I don't remember ever telling my family about this experience. I don't actually remember telling anyone about it until I was in the ordination process. And suddenly I realized just how important this experience was in my personal spiritual journey.

It's ironic, then, that while I was in college, my parents gave me a Bible cover for the Bible I used for classes. Guess what was on it. A picture of an eagle and Isaiah 40:31. I got goosebumps again when I opened it.

I guess another reason why I like this chapter is because it seems like God has given it especially to me.

I've read lots of Scripture since then. And I've gotten a lot of goosebumps along the way. But for me, this chapter will always have a special place in my heart.

What's your favorite piece of Scripture?

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Psalm 103 Prayer

www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com

Instead of reflecting today, I just thought I'd use Psalm 103 to write a prayer for you:

Praise the Lord, O my soul. I will praise Your holy name, for You are the one who forgives my sins, heals my hurts, and covers me with love and compassion.

Praise the Lord, O my soul. You are the God of compassion, slow to anger but quick to love. Though I sin and turn away, You do not treat me the way I deserve to be treated. Instead of chasing me away, You chase after me.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, because You are eternal and I am dust; my days are like grass. But from everlasting to everlasting, Your love abides with those who fear You, honor You, respect You.

Praise the Lord, ye angels above. Praise the Lord, ye servants of God. Praise the Lord, the earth of his creation.

Praise the Lord, O my soul.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Sunday Sermon: Ecclesiastes 3 sermon do-over

www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION
Please pray with me: Gracious God, you have the words of eternal life. As the Scripture is read and preached, empower us to hear it with humility and openness, so that hearing it, we respond with courage and conviction. Amen.

SCRIPTURE READING: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
1 There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, 3 a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, 4 a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, 5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, 6 a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, 7 a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, 8 a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

The grass withers and the flower fades but the Word of the Lord endures forever.

SERMON-INTRO
For those of you who missed the excitement last week, we didn’t quite get the whole way through the sermon. All week long, I was planning on this being a “do-over” sermon. I was going to enjoy the break from writing another sermon—it’s hard to do this every week, you know. So I was just going to recycle the sermon that never happened from last week.

And then life got in the way.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve had an Ecclesiastes 3 kind of weekend. I’m not exactly sure how to explain what I’m feeling other than to say it’s an Ecclesiastes 3 kind of weekend.

On Friday came the news of a pastor-friend of mine passing away from cancer. He was the father of one of my camp friends and was very kind and welcoming to me when I joined the Presbytery.

Then on Saturday I had the honor of performing a marriage. The bride and groom both cried as they recited the vows they themselves had written. It was a very touching service.
Then came the news of Wyatt’s tragic death and I went through all the emotions you go through when something terrible like that happens.

THEN, I began to prepare for the baptism of Diann’s granddaughter which we will be celebrating right after the sermon. Performing a baptism is one of the privileges of being a pastor that I enjoy the most.

So you can see, it’s been an up and down weekend. It’s been an Ecclesiastes 3 kind of weekend, with a time for everything under heaven. And I can’t just preach the same sermon that I was going to preach last week. Things have changed; life has changed; I have changed.

So I took that sermon from last week, tore it apart, and put it back together again. And I think, because of the last couple of days, I have a better sense of what Ecclesiastes 3 is all about. And because so many of you have been going through the things I have, I think you do too.

#1
This chapter of Ecclesiastes contains fourteen sets of opposites—experiences on the polar opposite ends of the spectrum. If we didn’t know what it felt like to be wounded, we wouldn’t appreciate what healing is all about. And we wouldn’t know the sweetness of peace without seeing the ugliness of war.

So it would seem that though we might prefer the more pleasant halves of these opposites—planting and healing and building—we couldn’t appreciate them without the less pleasant parts of life—the uprooting and the wounding and the tearing down.

What happened to Wyatt was awful, something nobody deserves. And I’m sure the first thing we all did when we heard the news was to say a prayer for his family. And the second thing we all did was to say a prayer of thanksgiving for the safety of our own families. Experiencing death gives us a renewed appreciation for life.

I plan on attending my friend Wayne’s funeral tonight. And I know one of the statements that will be made is that Wayne’s baptism has been made complete in his death. I know they’ll say it because that is a line I regularly use in the funerals I perform. And though you might think it would make me sad, it actually just seems right to celebrate the beginning of Miss Elizabeth’s life with her baptism this morning and the completion of Wayne’s baptism in his death this evening. That’s an Ecclesiastes 3 moment.

#2
Now, surely this list of opposites is not a list of the things God wants to happen. It is a list of things which WILL inevitably happen. I don’t believe God WANTS everything on this list to happen. I don’t believe God wants there to be a time to kill or a time to tear down or even a time for war. I think what the guy who wrote Ecclesiastes is trying to tell us is that all these times are going to happen. They are inevitable. These phrases are simply a part of life. And “there is a time for everything . . . under heaven.”

And sometimes you will have an Ecclesiastes 3 kind of weekend when the weeping and the laughing and the mourning and the dancing all happen at the same time. And you’re left with jumbled up feelings and feeling pretty confused.

As we prepared for the wedding yesterday, talk turned to Wyatt’s situation. And I watched the bride and groom struggle with wanting to be happy on their wedding day but feeling so terrible for his family at the same time. Sometimes, you will have an Ecclesiastes 3 kind of experience and you just have to get through it.

#3
And you get through it by remembering that each of these phrases is a season. Seasons have beginnings and ends. Summer has been great, but now we are coming to its end. Fall will begin just as summer is ending.

So seasons have a beginning and an ending. That means a season of weeping, for example, has a beginning AND an ending. This is important for us to remember because when it is a time for—or a season of weeping—it seems like there will be no end. When it is a time of mourning, it’s hard to believe there will ever be a time to dance and rejoice again.

Here is the hope and comfort hidden in this passage: for every season of sorrow or sadness, there will be an end. And that will be followed by a time of gladness and rejoicing, if we can only hang on until the next season begins.

CONCLUSION
There’s something about Ecclesiastes 3 that makes us take a step back and look at the big picture of our lives. We go so caught up in the little details of our lives that we forget that there is an ending to the season we’re in and the beginning of another, for better or worse.

And we may be in a phrase we don’t understand or that is painful. And we wonder when it is going to end. And we might even wonder why.

But Ecclesiastes also tells us that “God has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” I think there are some things we are not meant to understand. God has given us the ability to understand eternity and all things, but sin has broken us so that we cannot understand it. There are just some things we are not meant to understand.

The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us that 11 “God has made everything beautiful in its time.” It’s hard to see the beauty in the midst of some of the phrases in this chapter, but somehow, somewhere, God will make everything beautiful.

Let that bring you some hope in the middle of darkness. Let that promise bring you hope and comfort during ALL the seasons under heaven.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Last Week's Q&As

www.frankfortyotb.blogspot.com
Check out the church site too!
www.frankfortpresbychurch.com


Dude! I don't know what happened last week, but I don't think I blogged at all. Yeesh. So here are all the questions and answers that I know you've been dying for! :0)

Monday: In the last days, what will people love? (2 Tim 3)
2 Timothy 3:1-5 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Tuesday: When did the oracle at the end of Isaiah 14 come?
Isaiah 14:28 28 This oracle came in the year King Ahaz died:

Wednesday: Finish this verse: “As a father has compassion on his children, ______________________________________________________” (Psalm 103)
Psalm 103:13 13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

Thursday: Where does the apostle Paul leave Titus? Why? (Titus 1)
Titus 1:5 5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might straighten out what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you.

Friday: What does Isaiah say in response after all the leaders flee and are captured? (Isaiah 22)
Isaiah 22:4 4 Therefore I said, "Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people."

Saturday: How should one handle a “divisive person?” (Titus 3)
Titus 3:10 10 Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him.

Sunday: When God “hides” his face, how do the creatures of the earth respond? (Psalm 104)
Psalm 104:29 29 When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust.