Memorial Day Sermon

What’s a more appropriate subject to speak about on Memorial Day but freedom? Each Memorial Day we remember those in our country who have fought for the freedom we stand for as Americans; and this is a good and right thing to do. Long before Memorial Day was a national holiday,
a famous forefather said this,
“Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.” When John Quincy Adams said this I am sure he had no idea how many generations would defend our freedoms. And though on this day we remember soldiers who fought for our freedoms and sacrificed their lives, we know that countless others have fought on the side of freedom in other ways.
By no means is the fight for freedom a new concept, for many passages in the Bible speak of freedom, and indeed Christ himself fought for our freedom and even offered the great sacrifice of his life. But how to we honor such sacrifices for our freedom? How do we honor those who have sacrificed so that we would have freedom?


Perhaps a clue is the in the hope of John Quincy Adams, that we will make good use of it.
Paul writes of the freedom of Christ often in his letters to the newly formed Christian communities he interacted with. One such community was the church in Corinth. However, the church in Corinth was becoming divided as controversies brewed over matters of personal freedom and choice in the context of the freedom of Christ and the law.
Corinth was a city along a major trade route. It sits along the Mediterranean Sea with access to Jerusalem, Syria, Rome, Athens and other major cities of import at the time. Because of this it became a city with much diversity as traders from these trade nations settled there. We know that Corinth in Paul’s time, was the home for Jews, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Persians that settled there as traders, slaves, freed slaves, business owners and other class designations. These settlers brought with them various religions and so Jews, Christians and those who worshiped other gods or had no god interacted with one another.


And indeed the church of Corinth held many converts to Christianity from various religions. The mixture of race, class, and religious background of the congregation led to many controversies in the church as they decided what the freedom of Christ meant in a community of believers.
One such controversy was over eating meat sold in the market. Much of the meat sold in the market at Corinth came from temples where animals were sacrificed to various gods. Some of the church members at Corinth thought eating such meat was a sin, since it had been dedicated to idols and thus would be akin to worshiping another god to consume it. Others believed that since they were confident that idols and these gods were false, there was no harm in consuming this meat. Paul in his letter to the Corinthians weighed both of these arguments with his understanding of God and the grace brought to humanity through Christ. Paul argued that all creation is God’s; that everything of God is good and cannot be tainted by human thought. He captured this notion with the saying, “all things are lawful.” However, Paul qualified this statement with a “but”


“All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up.

What I believe Paul was saying is that while our actions cannot harm God or God’s grace to us through Christ, “nothing separates us from the love of God” we can harm each other through our actions. While most of the arguments about the eating of meat occur in the part of the letter we designate as Chapter 8, Paul brings it to the forefront again later in Chapter 10 but this time as a metaphor to be broadened and applied to the exercise of other freedoms we may have.
I have a friend who was in Desert Storm, the first military action in Iraq. At the time he was in Saudi Arabia. His unit was invited by locals to a feast as an act of hospitality. As leader of his unit, he was offered the choicest part of the meal. A roasted goat’s head was placed before him, intact with the face sitting forward to him. The skull was detached and he was offered flatbread and it was explained to him that he was to take the honor of having the first taste of the brain, a delicacy. Now this was a tough decision for him.


He didn’t want to eat this. He had the freedom to say thanks, but no thanks. He had the freedom to explain to the Saudi’s how this was not something he was accustomed to and refuse. But, and here is Paul’s but again. But my friend knew that this was a gesture of honor, a gesture of hospitality, a gesture of possible friendship, and to exercise his freedom to choose not to eat roasted goat brain was a refusal of all of these good things that were tied up with it. He chose not to exercise his freedom because it was not the right thing to do in the situation. Instead he chose the path of love and ate the goat brain, which he described as different but surprisingly not as disgusting as anticipated.
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.
In nursing school I met a woman who told me the part of the reason she became a nurse. Three years earlier while babysitting at a neighbor’s house, she heard a knock at the door. As she opened the door she was greeted by a 13 year old wielding a knife. She was stabbed over 20 times but managed to fend off her attacker, protect the children and call 911.

She spent weeks in the hospital. It was her right to pursue criminal charges. It was her right to ask that this boy be sent to jail. But, instead she asked that he get help. She asked that this 13 year old boy be protected from himself and others through treatment rather than jail. And then she chose to be a nurse, to heal others from pain and suffering whether physically or mentally. She could have exercised her freedom; she chose not to and gained other freedom.
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.
In this country there is a lot of talk about rights, specifically our first amendment rights; freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom of speech. These are good rights to have, great freedoms to have, and are worth fighting for. These freedoms define what it is to be American. But freedom as Paul asserts needs to be exercised cautiously and with a level of maturity.




You are able to say almost anything you want in this country, but should you?
Just turn on the TV, and you will be able to see hours of commentators on the government, on people, on culture, on religion, exercising their right to free speech. Some of them exercise this right responsibly, but many don’t. Responsible rhetoric does not bring ratings. And ratings drive the system; the more outrageous the speech, the more inflammatory the accusation, the bigger the ratings.
But I have to ask, are these shows beneficial to America? Do they build up our nation? Or do they divide us further. Consider your own freedom to turn the channel.
“All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.





Another famous American had this to say about responsibly exercising our freedoms. Her name was Eleanor Roosevelt. “Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility.” She goes on. “For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.”
Paul writes of the maturity we must have with the freedom of Christ. This maturity is known to us as the fruit of the Spirit as described by Paul in his letter to the Galatians. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It is within this level of maturity in which we can truly be free. The law Christ left for us was to Love God and Love Neighbor. The freedom he gave us was to be unbound from separation from God. The legacy that is ours is to become mature in Christ, to allow the fruit of the Spirit to grow in us. And only then will we truly know freedom.

“All things are lawful,” but not all things are beneficial. “All things are lawful,” but not all things build up. Do not seek your own advantage, but that of the other.

When we exercise our freedoms responsibly, when we love both God and neighbor in the exercise of our freedoms or the choice not to exercise our freedoms, when the fruit of the Spirit informs our actions, then we will make good use of our liberty.
The American Government gives us our rights, defends our rights, and clarifies our rights. But only we as individuals can exercise our rights. But, always remember the but. We are free, but, we need to be responsible. We are free, but we need to consider joy and peace. We are free, but we need to exercise self-control. We are free, but we need to be generous with others. We are free, but we need to have patience. We are free, but we need to act with love and kindness. We are free, but we need to act out of our faith.

Only then, will we be the hope of our forefathers, only then will we be the hope of Paul, only then will we be the hope of Christ. “ Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it.”

Lenten 2011 Sermon

In this passage we just read, God demands that the prophet Isaiah, "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins."

I just finished a retreat with the youth. And like most youth retreats there are late nights and early mornings. Well, early for teenagers. So, at 8:00a.m. in the morning my voice sounded like a trumpet to wake them up from their peaceful slumber.

These words given to Isaiah from God are a wake up call. The nation of Israel is slumbering. They are doing all that they are supposed to do, fasting and praying, keeping the sabbath, worshiping and being humble before their God. And yet, God seems farther than ever to them.

I know those of you in attendance tonight are faithful people of God. The kind of people who pray, read their Bibles, and go to church on Sundays. And maybe even some of you do other disciplines like fasting or meditation. These are all things that can get you closer to God; to know what God is doing in your life and how you are being transformed.

But sometimes we do these things because we think it is what we ought to do. Or perhaps we do these things because it is what we've always done or what someone else wants us to do.

Spiritual disciplines like these can often become like driving to us. We get into our cars and the destination is ahead of us. We know the way to where we are going because we go there every day; to the store, to work. We drive the same roads, it takes the same time, and the same predictable stoplights get in the way. This is good, we can relax, get absorbed in our thoughts, in the music, perhaps even sneak in a txt. Oh, none of you would ever do that! But I bet many of you have arrived at your destination without remembering the details of the drive.

I know I have. There have been many times where I've been so absorbed in other things that I don't remember the drive at all to work. Or worse, being too busy focusing on other things that I find myself stopping short to avoid an accident.

With our spiritual disciplines it can be the same thing. I don't know how many times I have started to read a chapter of the Bible and somewhere in the middle my brain has left the scene though my eyes keep reading the text. I get to the end and have to re-read. Have you ever read a sentence three or four times and it hasn't sunk in?

Now, just for clarification and before you diagnose me with Attention Deficit Disorder. I think this is quite normal human behavior for our thoughts to drift off into other spaces. We always seem to focus on the past or the future but hardly ever in the present. And so every once in awhile God needs to shout out to us, to wake us up from our slumber, to in a sense change things up for us, and the season of Lent is just such an opportunity.

This text of Isaiah calls us to be attentive to the ways in which we are honoring God. We fast, but do we fast and give the money to the poor? We read the Bible but do we practice what it says? Do we allow it to change our lives, making us kinder, more loving, more Christ-like? We pray, but are we willing to listen for answers? Are we willing to offer God more than our wish lists? We attend worship, but are we more focused on the music, the symbols, the decorations, the speakers, on what we like and dislike, than on our God whom we worship?

God calls us to attention this Lenten season. It is a time for us to ask ourselves how we will be more attentive to God, to each other, to the community. In a little while, we will receive ashes on our foreheads. Traditionally, these ashes come from burning the palm fronds used to celebrate Palm Sunday the previous year. It is so poignant to me how yesterday's means of praise becomes ash to us. Dead to us. So as you receive the ashes tonight I invite you to become quiet and introspective. Examine your spiritual life. What needs to be mourned and given up for ash? We will also be receiving communion tonight. With this sacred meal of resurrection we remember life. And so I also invite you to examine your spiritual life for what you might add to bring life? What needs to be born in you? What needs to be resurrected?

My daughter this week asked me what I was giving up for Lent. "Nothing," I said. "You're not giving up anything." "No," I said, "but I'm adding two or three things." Her eyes lit up. She asked, "Can you do that?" "Oh certainly, I said."

So this season, I give you the same freedom as my daughter, to let go of those things that are spiritually dead for you and embrace the things that make your spirit glow with the light of God.

Amen.

To Preach Again

I really miss preaching. More and more, my ministry becomes less and less about preaching. As a youth leader and one of three pastors in the church my preaching opportunities are limited.
I love crafting a serm0n. I love studying the text and thinking about it's meaning. I love embodying it as it is delivered. And I love the challenge of discerning how the Spirit is weaving the lectionary into happenings in the church and community.
It is my joy to preach.
I think I'll just have to start blogging more. And perhaps that is where the real preaching happens anymore at least for much of the population.
I will miss the embodiment of delivery. There isn't much embodiment in the written word, and yet a well written piece communicates not only a message but an image. At least for me it does.
So, once again the stream flows past trees and the Spirit that calls me to preach, continues to do so. Perhaps it will be even more meaningful for me to preach without the promise of an audience. And for sure.....there are things I can say here that would be costly if said in the local church.