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STRANGERS TO THE KINGDOM - from Sunday, November 22, 2015

11/23/2015

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The reactions to the President's move to accept 10,000 Syrian refugees have been stunning in their ugliness. It might be a surprise for Christians to know that the care of the stranger or alien is a clear priority for God in the Old Testament, and echoed by Jesus. On Christ the King Sunday, the last one in the church's liturgical calendar, we consider the starkly different values of the Kingdom.

The number in the President's plan is really token. Tiny Sweden with under 10 million citizens, half the population of Florida, has received 120,000 refugees just this year with 50,000 more expected by year's end. 

Some of the nation's presidential candidates, governors, mayors, and members of Congress, incoherently believe that terrorists may be among them. Yet there is a 21 step US screening process involving an alphabet soup of government agencies, including security and intelligence, that takes at least 2 years to complete. Besides, this batch of refugees has been waiting in Jordan for 3 years. (FYI: Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey together have over a million refugees.) Surely the terrorists are smart enough to figure out a better way to gain access to the USA, like go to Canada and walk across the border. And by the way, the refusal of refugees showed in a Congressional vote that such a foolish and ugly response was quite bi-partisan.

In Deuteronomy 10, God spells out divine concern for the widows and orphans, which we expect. But God then includes the alien/stranger in the land, following up with an instruction, 'you shall also love the stranger' just like God does. 'What? Why' 'For you were strangers in the land of Egypt;' that's why, says God. Ah, how quickly they forgot.

The irony of the US refusing refugees at Thanksgiving, a holiday whose narrative is of the people of the land providing assistance to the refugees whose back is to the wall, has been lost on the refuseniks. Let's also realize that by the end of the Nativity story (next Sunday begins the Advent/Christmas journey), Jesus and his parents are refugees in Egypt, according to Matthew. Ah, how quickly we forget!

Paul in his letter to Ephesus mentions how they were all aliens and strangers to the covenant of new life and apart from God until Jesus brought them hope and promise in his good news. For them to be squabbling over who is in or out, included or excluded, is stupid. Jesus did not come to bring division. Rather, Jesus unites them and adopts them into the family of God as his own sisters and brothers - no longer aliens and strangers.

On Christ the King Sunday, we're reminded of the King separating the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25. You know the passage; "I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink ...." What comes next? "I was a stranger and you welcomed me." Oooh, yeaaah.

Sorry, the camera did its job by all outward appearances, and showed recording for about a half hour (typical), yet nothing was there when I went to retrieve and edit the file. Huh. Well, you can still download the text below as well as the Fairfielder. 

By the way, if you have had problems opening the sermon text, a PDF, let me know, but be sure you have Adobe Reader installed among your programs. It's needed to open the file. (If you don't have Adobe Reader, click here - it's free but be careful about the junk they may try to get you to download along with it, like McAfee Anti-Virus.)

Don't eat too much for Thanksgiving and be blessed!

11-22-15-ff-answers.pdf
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11-22-15-strangers_to_the_kingdom.pdf
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INSINCERELY YOURS - from Sunday, November 15, 2015

11/17/2015

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We have all experienced insincerity, and it stinks. Okay, maybe we’ve practiced it once or twice. It still stinks. Despite our personal experience, the insincerity of the people of God toward their God and toward what God values can really raise divine ire. Yet it isn’t simply the act itself that’s so condemned.

Scripture is full of references to the fraudulence and insincerity of God’s people. You could say that it’s a recurring theme. Or maybe it’s just our sinful nature. 

Micah 6:1-8 features a snide human response to what God requires for God’s people to be regarded as righteous: ‘Does the Lord God require thousands of animal sacrifices, ten thousand rivers of oil, or my firstborn?’ The prophet Micah responds with the memorable: ‘What does the require of you? To do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God.’

We consider Malachi 5:6-14 where God through his prophet calls out the Temple priests for only sacrificing to God the unacceptable, unmarketable animals. The priests are keeping the good stuff to sell for their own benefit, and burning up in sacrifice the bad stuff as the offering to God. It’s as if the priests figured that God wouldn’t mind, or wouldn’t notice, or in any case wouldn’t know the difference. Not so.

In Acts 5:1-11, there is community of shared goods and wealth that is an interesting feature of the earliest followers of Jesus, in Jerusalem anyway. Acts 4 has several accounts of people converting their property and assets and bringing the funds to the community. But then there is Ananias and Sapphira in chapter 5. They sell their property and decide to deceive the other Jesus people in the community. They hold back some of the proceeds but pretend that they’ve given all of it. Someone rats them out and Peter has interesting conversations with them, one at a time. What happens next?

Both scriptures should have us asking ourselves about the nature of our giving and its sincerity. There are some ways of understanding our giving that ought to put things in perspective. Where to start?


To see what this is all about, there is the sermon video below, and note the downloads available below the video panel.

11-15-15-ff-answers.pdf
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11-15-15-insincerely_yours.pdf
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DOING WHAT FAMILY DOES - from Sunday, November 8, 2015

11/9/2015

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Family can be a very mixed bag; good for some, not so good for others. Ideally, family represents a special place of acceptance, belonging, support, love, and grace. The boundaries of "family" get stretched in today's scriptures in ways that teach us hard truths. We're called to transform the bounds of family into the bonds of family.

In the story from the Book of Ruth, we see how the standards of society in biblical times worked for women. Not so good, if you were wondering. Naomi and here daughters-in-law suddenly find themselves alone. Tradition dictates a return to "family," to one's own "people" for women in such a predicament.

Naomi is headed back to Bethlehem in Judah to her "people," and she urges her daughters-in-law to return to their  "people," the Moabites. One daughter-in-law, Orpah, reluctantly returned to her family, but the other, Ruth, refused, pledging herself to Namoi, to Naomi's people, to Naomi's path, and to Naomi's God.

As they return to Bethlehem, Ruth discovers the gracious and generous extension of care, hospitality, and generosity from Boaz, the owner of a field where she is gleaning behind the harvesting reapers. Although not one of his "people," Boaz treats Ruth in a way that regards her as "family," expanding the narrow notion that would traditionally prevail. It would have been expected that he regard her with indifference, but he didn't.

In Mark 12, Jesus begins by condemning the ostentatious, overbearing, and fundamentally useless teachers of the Law who have high self-regard, see themselves as definers of righteousness, and who disregard the real needs of God's people, preferring to narrowly define belonging according to distorted and corrupt views of God's will in the Law.

Then, being in the Temple, Jesus and his disciples take in the show by the collection box where donors place their gifts. The large gifts of the wealthy get plenty of attention. Jesus is likely annoyed by his own disciples being enrapt by these hefty gifts. When a widow drops in her two coins, Jesus seizes the moment to provide a lesson in genuine faithfulness. 

Behind his praise of the widow is also a condemnation of the wealthy and the religious leaders who are indifferent to the needs of those who are truly faithful. In Jesus' day as in ours, the system pays its best attention to those who have power and wealth, and holds the weak, poor, and vulnerable in contempt, seeing their condition as a result of their own personal failings as well as divine condemnation for their apparent sinfulness.

Jesus wants to remind his audience of their family connections, that the family of God's faithful must care for the widow and others in society like her, for such people are brothers and sisters in the eyes of God. When God's truly faithful are doing what family does, being supportive, encouraging, concerned, compassionate, forgiving, and nurturing as well as loving, then the gospel of new life in Jesus has been heard, received, and acted upon.

To get the full scoop, check out the sermon video below, and note the downloads available below the video panel.

11-08-15-ff-answers.pdf
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11-08-15-doing_what_family_does.pdf
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CELEBRATING SAINTS - from Sunday, November 1, 2015

11/3/2015

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All Saints Day came with the time change on Sunday. Celebrating saints for us is quite different from other Christian traditions which have special designation for "saints." However, it does give us more to celebrate.

Presbyterian/Reformed theology reecognizes that all of God's elect are "saints" or holy ones. With that whole predestination-to-salvation thing and Calvin's effectual calling, the saints are US!

Being God's chosen doesn't mean that you're anything too special, like extra-spiritual, super-blessed, or anything. We see from scripture that God's elect can get in trouble, but we also hear how God and God's promise remains for them. "God will wipe away every tear."

In Isaiah 25, God begins by having the prophet declare the destruction of God's sacred precinct on the holy hill of Jersualem. Yet in our passage, God's promise follows on the heels of God's judgment.

That promise is a special sacred feast of the finest goods. Look at the passage and see what's on the menu. The "menu" gets spelled out in detail in the sermon. At this feast, God promises the saints that the covenant will continue with God's will fulfilled. "God will wipe away every tear."

In Hebrews 12, the author is trying to shore up the doubting spirits, shaking kneees, and slumped shoulders of the faithful. These faithful are likely either converts from Judaism, or new Jesus-followers who are seeking to find their place within traditional Judaism as well as, say, a house church. In any case, they have been beset and their beliefs attacked. The author's letter tries to show the fulfillment of Judaism's promise in Jesus.

The Hebrews author summons the witnesses of faith across many generations. The message emphasizes the struggles of these faithful servants, and even the denial of their goals and aims. It also reminds them that God ultimately upheld them, honored them, and fulfilled God's promise in them. These beleaguered early Christians need to see themselves amid a "cloud of witnesses" across a long history of God's faithful, and join with such steadfast and determined faith heroes of the ages.

Finally, the author points to Jesus, his earthly struggles, trials, and brutal crucifixion, in whom God's promise was fulfilled. Endurance, persistance, and sacrifice by the saints is what happens to God's people when they're truly faithful.

We celebrate the saints and their struggles, but most importantly the triumph of the promise of new life in Jesus Christ. 

Get the full sermon via the video (yes, it worked this week!) or the text download below the video panel.

11-01-15-ff-answers.pdf
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11-01-15-celebrating_saints.pdf
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