Monday, April 11, 2011

Maundy Thursday

Jesus' disciples were all good and faithful Jewish men. Although they weren't the most highly educated, they came from faithful families. They had almost certainly celebrated a Seder meal every year of their lives. The word "Seder" actually means "order." As in the fact that there is a specific order to the meal. Just like we are known as Methodists, because of our specific methods of organizing.

The disciples entered into the upper room with the knowledge that they knew what was coming next. They knew the routine, the knew the order of the seder meal.

But that night in the Upper Room would be very different. From the very entrance, Jesus changed the formula. In place of the lowly servant to wash their feet, Jesus kneels before them. Jesus used the ritual and tradition that was so very familiar to them, but Jesus infused it with new meaning.

Tonight we will celebrate a traditional Jewish Seder meal, but because of our faith in Jesus as the Messiah; these symbols mean something different to us. The Jewish Seder meal celebrates the past and longs for the future - our meal tonight celebrates the past, the present, and the future.

Let's begin with the past.

Read the account of the passover.

The Jewish people were slaves in Egypt. We remember the stories of Moses' birth. As the Jewish population increased, they began to outnumber the Egyptians, so Pharoah called for all newborn babies to be killed.

Slavery is the backdrop for our meal tonight. Take the horseradish and eat it. It is bitter. This reminds us of the harsh bitterness of slavery endured by the Jews in Egypt. As Christians, we live in the present, and this bitter herb must also remind us that many people still live with the bitterness of slavery. Around the world millions of people are enslaved. Women and children are subjected to unimaginable horror as sex-slaves, women and children are used as cheap labor in banana republics where they are paid pennies for a solid hour of work, and the lost and the hurting often find themselves enslaved to sin. We taste this bitter herb to remind us that slavery is still an all too real part of life for all too many people.

To wash that taste out of your mouth, you may eat some of the Haroset. It's the apple, cinnamon mix. We eat it because it symbolizes the mud used to create bricks. [As moses was fighting for the freedom of his people, God sent plagues. Pharoah punished the Jewish slaves by demanding that they increase the number of bricks they made each day - but he refused to give them any straw. God provided a miracle and the bricks set up.] This Haroset is used to sweeten the bitterness of slavery. Because of our faith in God, we know that we can survive anything - we know that God is with us. As Christians we work toward the future. We believe and fight for a future free from the yoke of slavery. We pray for wisdom and try to remember that our actions and purchases either encourage or stem the tide of unfair practices globally.



On the night of the final Plague, Moses instructed the faithful to take the blood of a lamb and to spread it around the doorframe of their house. Take your green and dip it in salt water. This represents the hyssop branch dipped in the Lamb's blood. When death came through, it would passover the homes with the blood of the lamb on their doorframes. That night death took the firstborn of every house in Egypt. Even Pharoah's youngest was killed. This is the reason for the celebration - death passed over the Jewish homes.

Go ahead and taste the lamb, and remember the sacrifice made for you.

You know, oddly enough, in many languages the word for Passover and Easter are the same word. Dear friends, death is coming - it is on its way - and God asks you to take the blood of the lamb and to put it on the doorframe of your heart. Jesus is our sacrificial lamb. His presence in our lives shows without a doubt that death is not welcome here.

This last year has been an especially difficult one for me. More than a year ago one of my closest friends had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. From the other side of the world I watched as my healthy, active 23 year old friend succumbed to the long slow debilitating effects of the cancer. As Christians, we celebrate the tension of living in this era. Death is not welcome here, but it is yet to be fully vanquished.

One day we will live in a world free of sadness and tears. "The last enemy to be defeated shall be death." This lamb is for us a symbol of the blood of the lamb that protected the Jewish people, the blood of our Lamb who protects us, and the promise of a better future - one in which the lion will lie down with the lamb.

The hard boiled egg represents for us the old covenant. The system of offering burnt offerings to appease God. This should remind us of the new covenant - that Jesus Christ died in our place as our sacrifice.

And we come to our final items. Bread and wine.

The Matzah bread is specific because there wasn't time to make yeast breads which would need time to rise. Although the people had been waiting on God, they weren't acting like it. They weren't acting as though they believed that God would free them from slavery. If they had trusted that God would set them free as God had promised, the people would have had bread already prepared.

Sometimes in our own lives, although we say that we trust God, we fail to plan and act accordingly. My great aunt Mabel was a very strict old-school-religion kind of Christian. Her financial adviser had advised several end-of-life care options. He felt that she should buy life insurance and a burial plot, but Aunt Mabel staunchly refused. One day she was going over her finances with my mother who pressed for a reason why she wouldn't make those logical investments. "Well, I plan on going up in the rapture." After she lived for a decade longer than any of her brothers and sisters - we all started getting a little readier for the rapture.

Nothing is funnier than watching children sing "If you're happy and you know it" while obviously not being happy about the fact. Few things are sadder than watching Christians sing about the joy of the Lord with no trace of joy on their faces. Eating the Matzah reminds us to live each day as though we actually believe the things we say we believe.

We drink the wine to remind us that this is a celebration. When Jesus held up the wine, he was reminding his disciples that even at the end of his life - life is a party. As we move closer to Good Friday and we remember the death of Jesus, it is important for us to remember that this Friday truly is good. This sacrifice saves us from sin, from Hell, from ourselves - this sacrifice saves and redeems the world. This bread and this cup are a symbol for us that truly Jesus Christ is our sacrifice. We share in his body and blood and we are saved by nothing less.

After the choir anthem, we will share in Holy Communion together. Like the disciples gathering for the Seder meal - this is something we have done at least dozens of times. We know the order, the method, the ritual; and that knowledge makes it even easier to miss the significance and the meaning of this sacred order. I urge you to remember in earnest the sacrifice of our Lord as we share in communion together.

Monday, April 04, 2011

Jesus the partier

"On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”
“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.

Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”

They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him." - John 2:1-11


Start sermon by bringing out a wine glass.

Wine has been around for thousands of years. In historical settings where water was unsafe to drink, most often people drank wine. Wine is an important part of dozens of cultures. You can't be Italian or French without a nice glass of wine in your hand. Wine doesn't have the same reputation as other alcohols. Vodka and other hard liquors are just used for getting drunk. Beer is often seen as a little low-brow. It's something to drink while sitting on a bench in a park. But wine is different. Wine is used for celebrating. Nothing is as clear a sign of refinement and celebration as uncorking a nice bottle of wine. Wine is a symbol of great wealth. The rich relish in ordering a bottle with a label that clearly shows refinement and taste. University students drink wine out of a box, their parents uncork a bottle with a dog riding a unicycle on the label.

Wine is a symbol of an elegant, delightful party.

[At this point I will bring out a second wine glass and clearly pour grape juice into it for my translator

A TOAST: May you share in the greatest party of your lives. May we find joy together and embrace it with our whole hearts. будьмо!

Today I want to talk about parties and my favorite partier.

It's my last sermon with you - so I can say anything that I want and get away with it. If you have theological questions, feel free to ask David tomorrow.

Jesus was a partier. At least that was the reputation he had. He went to parties thrown by anarchists and attended by prostitutes. When we think of Jesus, many of us think of a quiet reserved man, in a field silently tending sheep as David portrayed him two weeks ago. Someone who would fit in better in a library than a bar. But Jesus' enemies felt quiet differently about him. They lambasted him for his ways. They felt that his lifestyle choices were shameful.

And they weren't so far from the truth. Now we assume that because Jesus was without sin, that Jesus always drank in moderation. We would be wise to do likewise. But whether Jesus drank at all, he was still present and active at some wild parties. His friends were people that you probably wouldn't hang out with. But maybe you should.


...


Life in Christ isn't about following the rules or trying to earn rewards or entrance to heaven. Life in Christ is a party - and you're invited.




This was the third day of the wedding. People had been drunk for three straight days, and Jesus felt it necessary to turn water into wine.


A lot of us were taught the rules of religion when we were growing up. Don’t do this. Don’t do that. Don’t lie, don’t cheat. Throw salt over your left shoulder to knock the devil off. We were taught the rules.

Because it’s a lot easier to teach a toddler not to touch a hot stove, than it is to teach that same toddler how to use that stove to cook the most exquisite meals the world has ever tasted.

When I look at global Christianity, the thing that turns my stomach into knots- the truth that causes great anguish and pain- is that most Christians never move beyond the instruction of rules and regulations of the faith.

Sermon after sermon, book after book, angry grandmother after angry grandmother – they all point to the same thing: we are children and we are going to get burned by the stove.

We are not children anymore. It is time for our faith in Christ to move beyond the gentle instruction reserved for toddlers. We must move into a maturity of faith. We must no longer be afraid of the stove, and instead we must learn to cook delicious meals on it.

Because living in the fullness of Christ is a party. It’s a lavish affair that goes on and on and on. Jesus and his disciples show up while the party is in full swing. It has been going on for several days – and then they run out of wine. Not only does Jesus support the merits of having an occasional glass of wine for your health – he embraces the joy, delight, and merriment of a drunken party lasting well into next week.

Jesus tells the head servant to take a cup and fill it with water and take that cup of water to the man sitting at the head of the table. Now, if you or I were asked this request – we would go to the faucet. But, this was Cana 2000 years ago. They didn’t have faucets – they didn’t have running water. The water wasn’t safe to drink – so they didn’t keep “drinking water" around. They lived in the desert. This head servant dipped his cup into the only water supply in the house – the water that had been used in the ceremonial washing.

As guests arrived over the three day long party, the servants used the whole supply of water to wash the feet of the guests. The wedding party and the most important guests would have washed first – with clean water. Women, children, servants, slaves, and late-comers would have washed with the dirty water that was left over.
It was this dirty water, this used-up source, that was available when Jesus asked the servant to take some water to the head of the household.

Now, these were harsh times for servants and slaves. If the servant brought you a cup of filthy, muddy water – you didn’t laugh it off as a good prank; you had his head cut off for insubordination.

Although this man has never seen Jesus perform a miracle (remember, this was Jesus’ first public miracle), and has maybe never even heard him preach, he has had the privilege of interacting with Jesus. He and his fellow servants have washed the feet of Jesus and the disciples as they entered the party. What about that 20 minute interaction let the head-servant know that he could trust his job – his very life – to the words and actions of this wandering teacher and his twelve disciples? Maybe the servant knew Mary well and trusted her words intimately. We will never know for sure.

But we do know, he trusted Jesus enough to dip his chalice into dirty, used up water and walked to the front of the hall to deliver the most delicious wine ever created to the head of the party.

Jesus is asking the same of you. First, he’s asking you to trust him. You've known Jesus for longer than 20 minutes. Just as Mary says to the servant, I say to you this day, "Do whatever he tells you."

He’s asking you to take a real leap of faith and to really trust him. Jesus wants you to really trust him with not only your job and the respect that people show you, but He wants you to risk even your very life.

Second, he's asking you to dip into the dirty water of the world. Because if we want to see a miracle, we have to work with what we've got.

This world is dirty and filthy. People are mean and cruel. I could read you statistics about how many people are addicted to drugs, how many people get raped, how many children go to bed hungry at night, how many people are beat up in hate crimes because of the color of their skin or because of whom they love, or how many people are killed in violent crimes every year. I could read you these statistics, but I think that deep down you already know them. You know that we live in a fallen world.

So instead, I'll read you the hope and promise that Christ has given us. “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”

Jesus Christ is the best wine the world has ever tasted. Jesus wants us to stand up and have the courage to dip into the filthy, dirty world and to know that from that we will pull out the finest wine. When we are ready and willing to get our hands dirty and to engage with the world - at that point we will experience the fullness of Jesus Christ as Savior who can move the mountains.

Trust that the Holy Spirit will guide you. Don't just give a few coins to the old lady holding out a cup - ask her to share her story. Think about where you spend your free time and where people who don't know Jesus spend theirs.

There's this really beautiful miracle that Jesus wants to make happen, but he needs you to take the lead and dip into the dirty water and to risk your life to bring it to the world. I don't know what it is, but I think that you should "Do whatever he tells you."

After 13 beautiful months, today is my final day in L'viv. I refuse to mourn this fact. In Jesus Christ, life is a party. We have celebrated and partied together for 13 months, and as brothers and sisters we will continue to party together for all of eternity. Whether I come back in a few months or a few years or whether we don't get to see each other again until we are with Jesus; the party continues.

This day Jesus is asking us all to trust Him and do as he says. Leaving this place today is part of that trust. While it breaks my heart to say goodbye, I will gladly dip my chalice into this dirty water - because I have the hope and the promise that Jesus Christ saves the best for last. The best is yet to come, and we are part of making that happen.

May you always have the freedom to live in the joy of Christ. May you have the courage to celebrate and party in the face of danger and strife. Amen.

Saturday, April 02, 2011

My final sermon at L'viv UMC.

A parable:

I once knew a couple who were farmers, and we used to go often to visit their farm. At one point in my childhood, finances got tight and they had to close down the farm for a few years. They sold all of the livestock and didn't plant any new crops. The barns stood empty and the fields were bare. But, for these two farmers, their lives revolved around the farming community. Their calendar had been filled with farming, farming conferences, cattle auctions, and shows.

So, with or without the farm, they continued with their farming lifestyle. They attended farming conferences. They listened to lectures about the latest farming technologies. They discussed which seed varieties worked best in their region. They learned about which tractors and combines were most effective to plow and to harvest.

And then they went home. They didn't farm. They talked about how helpful the farming conference had been and they both agreed that it had made them better farmers.

They went to cattle auctions and watched as other people bid on cows. Then they went home. They looked out at the empty barn and shrugged their shoulders. They didn't plant and they didn't harvest for another year.

The next year they eagerly signed up again for the regional farming conference. They were so excited to learn how to be better farmers, and to be taught how to grow and harvest more effectively. They were really ready for this conference to make them even better farmers than the conference the year before.

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After I became a Christian I wasted several years. I didn't share my faith with anyone for a long time because I was afraid. I assumed that I didn't have the right words, or that I couldn't answer their questions. I was afraid that people would reject me. I read books on the subject, and listened to sermons about it, but I never took that first step of sharing my faith.

I love the simplicity of the witness of the man in today's story. He sees that the Pharisees are stuck on some complex theological issue and he states simply that he doesn't know the answer. But he continues, "One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!"

It's this simple answer that the divided world is looking for. While professors and lawyers argue over great theological questions - the rest of us are left to give the simple answer. We can only share what we know. "I was blind but now I see!" I hated everything about myself and now I love myself. I was an angry drunk and now I love my family. I was a sinner and now I'm forgiven.

I want you to watch this video.

[I'm not sure if we'll watch the whole video in church ... maybe just a few minutes. I really wrestled with the idea of performing this, or making this interactive somehow. I'm not done wrestling yet!]

I want you to think about your own life. Could you explain what Jesus has done on one piece of paper? Could you then stand up on a stage and show that paper to everyone else? Could you say those two phrases to someone that you really love?

These last few weeks we've been preaching about sharing our faith. We hope that we have helped you become more confident and motivated to share your faith. As Christians, we believe that our collective testimony is powerful and world-changing. I want to share three stories with you all today that highlight this fact:

Almost 300 years ago the Methodist movement began. It grew out of frustration with the established church. It was a time in church history when the church was dead. The wealthy and the powerful went to church to be seen. The poor and the powerless were simply not welcome.

John and Charles Wesley came from an odd family life. Their father had been a priest, but he left his congregation to move to the city. His wife, Susanna, felt that it was important that her children have instruction - so she began teaching them on Sunday mornings. Well, soon enough, the other mothers found out about the Bible classes and asked if their children could also attend. And soon the mothers also began attending. And then the fathers began attending.

Susanna Wesley soon had a thriving congregation on her hands - and, unintentionally, she was their priest. So the Wesley children grew up with the knowledge that God worked in strange and wonderful ways - and that God worked through all kinds of people.

When the Wesley brothers were old enough they became priests as well, but the sensed that the church was dying - if not already dead! People with great wealth went to church on Sunday morning to be seen by others. The poor were no longer welcome in the church. The job of "priest" had become a profitable career choice. The Wesley brothers wanted to see their church come alive again. They became part of a home group - and during this time their hearts were strangely warmed. They began to see the problems that had been slowly eating away at the church.

They began preaching to all people. If the poor weren't welcomed into the church - then neither was Jesus and neither were the Wesley brothers. They would go and preach somewhere else. They preached the good news that Jesus Christ died for sinners and that all may be made right with God through Jesus - and they preached it everywhere. They preached in marketplaces and they stood on tombstones and preached it in cemeteries. Crowds gathered to hear this radical idea - and this idea is still radical today! - and the Wesley brothers formed these men and women into home groups.



75 years ago Elaine Neale was growing up in a poor immigrant family. Her father was a mean drunk and it wasn't uncommon for the children to have bruises. One of her neighbors attended the Methodist church in her little town, and came over one day to ask if she could bring Elaine and her sisters to Sunday School with her own children. Each Sunday she would walk with her sisters to the local United Methodist church.

They went to the United Methodist church because they were welcome there. People loved them there. To the people at that little United Methodist congregation; it didn't matter how poor those little girls were, it didn't matter how much of a drunk their daddy was, and it didn't matter that they didn't know anything about the Bible or how good people behaved. What mattered was that Jesus loved them, and so did the people of that little church.

I am standing here today because that woman had the courage to invite my grandmother to church and because that little church loved her and her sister's unconditionally.



In Mongolia I met several people with the name Nergyui. Now, in Mongolia people attribute great importance to names. I assumed that Nergyui must be a particularly beautiful and meaningful name. I asked one of the boys named Nergyui what his name meant and his eyes looked toward the floor. "My name means, 'no name'" he said.

In Mongolia, if a child dies, his or her name is no longer considered beautiful. So, if parents think that a child will die they choose not to waste a good name on them. I met many such people. Ter bish - not this. no one. nothing.

All of their lives, the world had told them that they were nothing - but in the church they found that they were so precious that God was willing to give Jesus to be nothing in their place. The United Methodist church in Mongolia is filled with such people. These people find the meaning and purpose that their lives had always been missing.



I share these examples to show the church in three very different locations and time periods working at its best. These were churches that looked beyond what the world saw and in turn they were able to transform the world.

In the past I have been afraid to share my faith because I felt like I was doing it simply for myself. I was trying to make myself feel better, or I was trying to be a better Christian because witnessing was what I was "supposed to do." When we share our faith with the world, we move in the direction of transformation.

If that neighbor lady hadn't invited my grandmother to church, I wouldn't be here today. For three generations we have worked for the cause of the gospel. We have shared our faith and we have fought for social change. I am very, very thankful that that woman worked up the courage to ask if she could bring my grandmother and her sisters to church. I owe a lot of my life and my ministry to her.

When we share our faith in big and small ways, we receive a blessing. But the fried that we share with also receives a blessing. Whether he or she accepts or rejects your words, the blessing is in part simply knowing that you care enough to share. If that friend accepts, his or her life will be blessed immeasurably by God. The world will be blessed by the new life that person has in God. The people they share with will be blessed.

When Jesus spat in the mud and placed it in the eyes of the blind man, he opened his eyes to a whole new world. The man had never seen anything before. He and his family had been shunned by the community because of his blindness - and now he could see. His life had been transformed by Jesus Christ and he was ready to tell the whole world.

You know, there are a lot of people who will tell you that it's wrong to share your faith. The pharisees were angry and upset that Jesus had performed this miracle. As though there was something sinful about opening someone's eyes to a whole new world. If people felt this way about Jesus, you can bet the farm that they'll feel the same way when you do it. People will be upset when you help to open people's hearts to God.

But, do you know who wasn't upset or angry? The blind man. He was thrilled to have his sight back. He was so overjoyed that he was ready to share his faith even with the powerful and important men who were clearly angry at this Jesus who "sinned" by healing on the Sabbath. No matter how you go about it, any person whose life is changed by Jesus Christ will be glad that you shared with them.

Go forth this day, armed with nothing but your simple story, and transform this world for Jesus Christ.