Ad Fontes

Message - Someone May Be Watching You! (or, How do others see us getting along in the church family?)

2012-01-29T21:00:00.001-05:00

Sermon: Someonemay be watching you! Or, How do we get along in the family?

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8.1-13

Preacher: Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: University Place Presbyterian Church

Date: 29 January 2012

Beloved,some things may not always appear as they really are. Today’s text is one of those. Like a boxer, Paul feints a jab with his lefthand while coming across the top with a right cross; we think we see the jabbut get hit with an entirely different hand!

Ourlectionary readings have us in the midst of Paul’s teaching the Corinthians aboutwhat it means to live in community. Listening to the Story today, I pray HolySpirit will help us hear and feel the force Paul’s delivery as we hear what hereally wants us to hear. Listen to theWord of the Lord!

1Corinthians 8.1-13

Nowconcerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possessknowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²Anyone whoclaims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; ³butanyone who loves God is known by him.

⁴Hence,as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the worldreally exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” ⁵Indeed, eventhough there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there aremany gods and many lords— ⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father,from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ,through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

⁷Itis not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become soaccustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as foodoffered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ⁸“Foodwill not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and nobetter off if we do. ⁹But take care that this liberty of yours doesnot somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if otherssee you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might theynot, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating foodsacrificed to idols? ¹¹So by your knowledge those weak believers forwhom Christ died are destroyed. ¹²But when you thus sin againstmembers of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sinagainst Christ. ¹³Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, Iwill never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. [1]

So let’s summarize: There’s some subterranean grumbling going onin the Corinthian church about those who feel they have a better grasp onorthodoxy than others do. It appearssome are eating food that has been dedicated to an idol and thenon-idol-believing Christian goes ahead and eats the meat because she or hedoesn’t believe in idols to begin with. You see, meat used in temple offerings for idol worship and the likewere sometimes turned around and sold at market so anyone could purchase andeat them. The non-idol believingChristians didn’t sweat it, as idols don’t exist to begin with in theirthinking. Others in the Christiancommunity, however, felt that to eat food dedicated to pagan gods or an idolwas an affront to God in Christ and should not be eaten. The squabble emerged between these two groupsover whose understanding of orthodoxy was the most correct. Their squabbling was noticed by those outsidetheir particular Christian community and it was frankly hurting the church’switness.

Let’s put it in a contemporarysetting. Frank Crouch, Dean andVice-President of Moravian Theological Seminary describes it this way. Hewrites, “Suppose that there is a covered-dish supper at your church. Someone brings a platter of food saying, “Thelocal Satan-worshipers had a table set up at (Tacoma Mall) giving away thisfood. It’s delicious!” Crouch goes on to ask, “Would you eat it infront of everyone?”[2]

Now, some of you would say, “What’s thebig deal? Food is food and my belief inGod overrides any devotion to Satan so why not?” Others of you would balk and say, “I can’teat food being handed out by those people!” Both sides have strong opinions on what is right and what is wrong. These strong opinions from two very righteouslysounding sides are causing friction in the Body. One side says, “You’re causing me to stumblein my faith!” and the other side says in affect, “Get over it! We know better!”

Meanwhile, Paul shakes his head. Paul realizes it is more than just food atstake. Paul understands the deeperissues afoot and it’s not the spiritual nutritional value of what a personeats; on the contrary, the real issue is how the different views and beliefs ofthe people in the same fellowship can be held in tension while incarnating lovefor one another. Food and eating, mybeloved, is merely a metaphor used to highlight the real focus of the text andthat is how the Christian community lives with one another.

Paul the boxer throws a feint jabhaving us look at food squabbles when he is really setting us up for thedelivery of the hard right cross which is loving one another in the community. We think he is talking about this (food) whenhe really is getting to the point of that (loving one another).

Former President of Columbia Seminary,Laura Mendenhall speaks on the passage and begins with describing her 32-yearmarriage with her husband. Over the course of their years together, each wouldhave boundaries they would mark off in their relationship to make sure theirrelationship stayed strong – boundaries like being faithful to one another,being present with each other and making themselves available to the other andto the kids even in the midst of busy work demands. She says her love for her husband andchildren have forced her to put limitations on her life, what she calls the limitationsimposed by love. With this in mind, Mendenhallsays, “Paul agreed there was nothing wrong with eating this food except that todo so would not take seriously the concerns of those who still worried thatthis would link them with idol worshippers. Consequently,” she says, “thelimitations imposed by love dictate that they not eat the food. Even though those concerned about eating thefood were wrong, love for one another took precedence over principles.”[3]

The Corinthian church. Paul met acommunity of faith whose aggressive spiritual striving out paced their concernfor others in the community. One pastorwrites, “Deep-seated impatience and presumptuousness characterized theCorinthians...and to this divisive and anxious fellowship…Paul understood thatin Corinth the spiritual pride of comprehension had supplanted the leadershipof love.”[4]

One group prided themselves on theirknowledge and the other group prided itself on its orthodoxy. Paul’s response in our text’s opening verseshits them both between the eyes. Hetells them that all of you “possess knowledge” but then he quickly reminds themthat “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.”

Beloved, we are no different than ourCorinthian cousins and this has become very evident since the GeneralAssembly’s decision to change ordination standards. On one hand, we have a group of people in thechurch that claims superior knowledge on this matter. On the other hand, we have a group that findsitself rooted in defending its orthodoxy. The irony is, whether one believes the ordination standard changes arecorrect or not, he or she can be in either group. There is “liberal knowledge” just as there is“conservative knowledge.” There isconservative orthodoxy just as there is liberal orthodoxy. And the challenge is that both views pointtheir fingers at the other thinking their view is the superior of the twoviews.

Reformer John Calvin comments on thistext saying, “That unless our knowledge is tempered with charity (i.e. love),it does not only not avail, but alsoit does much hurt, because it (i.e. our certain knowledge) is the mistress ofpride.”[5]

Some of you may be wondering why Ichose this text in Corinthians to preach on from the lectionary. At first blush, it seems to be an obtuse textbut I believe it speaks to our church in very timely ways.

I hear of parking lot conversationsbetween folks are confused as to the preacher’s actions when it comes to thewhole ordination thing for non-celibate single adults. One side says, “I thought he was on our side”while the other side is wondering the same thing.

Over the last three weeks, I’veattended some functions, which to some seem very contradictory to theother. Three weeks ago, I was on a panelof four for the Presbytery of Olympia explaining the reasons why I am choosingto currently stay in the PCUSA. The weekbefore last I attended a conference in Orlando for the Fellowship ofPresbyterians that is looking at new denominational models for the church. Theological conservatives cheer my attendanceat the Orlando event while theological liberals are bemoaning that move. Theological liberals may be thrilled that Iam going to presently keep the course with the PCUSA while theologicalconservatives are shaking their heads as why I would go to presbytery and speakon such a thing. Both sides haveindicated to me that, “they possess knowledge” as to the legitimacy of theirviews. What I have not necessarilyexperienced is either side acknowledging through action that “Knowledge puffsup, but love builds up.”

Our text today has Paul telling us thatthe food eaten dedicated to idols is a metaphor for the larger issue of how theChristian community lives together. Let’schange the issue: If Paul were writingto us he might say something to the affect, “Some of you are for and some of youare against ordination of committed gay pastors and elders. Some of you are for and some of you areagainst staying with the larger Presbyterian Church USA. What are each of you going to do to preventthe other one, the other side, from falling away from Christ?”

Food was not the big picture issue for Paul;rather, the focus for Paul was how the community wrestles with the issuetogether. Others were watching this new community and noted how they resolvedtheir differences and if they got along because how they got along was a directreflection on whether or not they were truly loving one another as Christ lovedthem. It’s no different today, sisters and brothers.

Beloved, here’s a newsflash. Theculture today is not judging the Church about the decision to ordain or not toordain. The culture is watching how weare relating to each other in the process and what they are witnessing is theself-destruction of a community of faith called the Presbyterian Church. The Anglican splits were not pretty. The Lutheran splits were not pretty. The split in the Corinthian fellowship wasnot pretty. Wouldn’t it be nice todisagree with agreeably? Wouldn’t it be nice to show the world, todemonstrate to this anti-church culture that yes, there are significantdisagreements in the Christian communion but my goodness, “Look how they loveeach other in the midst of their differences! Look at their focused ministry to thecommunity generated by the love of Jesus! Look how they are working together atsolving the issues in the spirit of Jesus’ love!” Friends, I find it marvelousthe Christian community can model for all people that even when there is starkdisagreement, both sides don’t have to “fort up” but can navigate the issues oftheology, biblical practice and spiritual vitality together. But this is the key: We can only do this ifwe keep Jesus at the front and center of everything we do.

That’s the type of Christian church Iwant to be a pastor of. The ministry ofthe Gospel of Jesus Christ for the lost, the broken, the naked, the hungry andthe outcast is far too important, far larger in need and scope than fightingover food. We all need to suck it up for“the weaker brother and sister” understanding that the other person may see usas the weaker one. Why? Because someone is watching you. Someone is watching us. First,the world is watching us to see if we practice what we preach. Second, Jesus is watching you – watching us –to see if we are living in the agape love he has called us to live or are wejust paying the Christ lip service. Beloved, we have gay members of this family of faith and we have notbeen demonstrating grace by siding up on issues with our professed betterknowledge or orthodoxy! We are all apart of the family here!

This week, let’s burn on our heartsPaul’s maxim: Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. Then, let’s not just remember it, but let’sactually live that way. And all God’speople said, Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor &Teaching Elder

University PlacePresbyterian Church

8101 27th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.uppc.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2012 Patrick H. Wrisley.Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends ofUniversity Place Presbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed,published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1]The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Divisionof Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the UnitedStates of America. Used by permission. All rightsreserved.

[2] Commentary on the SecondReading, 1 Corinthians 8.1-13 by Frank L. Crouch for the Lectionary for SundayJanuary 29, 2012, Fourth Sunday after Epiphany. Accessed on 1/25/2012 at http://www.workingpreacher.org.

[3] Laura Mendenhall,Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, Limitations Imposed by Love, 1 Corinthians 8.1-13, February 2,2003. Accessed on 1/25/2012 at http://day1.org/532-the_limitations_imposed_by_love.

[4] Susan B. W. Johnson, Strength Revealed as Weakness, 1Corinthians 8.1-13, The Christian Century, January 22, 1997, p. 75. Accessed on 1/24/2012 at http://www.religion-online.org.

[5] John Calvin, Commentaryof 1 Corinthians 8:1, 8:1, (1). Accessedon 1/25/2012 from http://www.ccel.org/g/geneva/notes/1Corinthians/8.html.

Message: Taking Part in a Baptized Life

2012-01-11T18:10:00.000-05:00

Sermon: TakingPart in a Baptized Life

Scripture: Acts19:1-7

Preacher: Dr.Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

Date: January 8, 2012

Last week we looked at thequestion, “What’s in a name?” and pondered the idea of what we would name ourself as we begin the New Year. In otherwords, if we were to give ourselves a name that described our personalChristian passion, purpose and character, what name would we choose to liveinto for 2012? Do you remember the nameyou gave yourself? I’ve been repeatingmine daily to get it into my head.

Today’s text in Acts is a textwhich complements last week’s text from Luke in that we hear a little moreabout what it means to live into the name we have chosen for ourselves. It highlights the difference between what youare called and whether or not you actually live into your name. For example, I call my 18-pound Maine Cooncat, Tiny, even though he does nothing but eat and grow fat. His name and hisactions do not match one another.

This is what our text is abouttoday. It’s the difference betweencalling ourselves Christians and Christ-Followers and actually living that outin our daily living.

Thismorning, we pick up in Acts when the early Apostles were on the move. Paul has been making a circuit of thechurches he has founded and is moving up along the coast of what is todaySouthwest Turkey to the town of Ephesus. Apollos, a rhetorically trained Egyptian follower from Alexandria, hasjust left Ephesus to cross two hundred miles over the Aegean Sea toCorinth. Paul arrives in Ephesus todiscover the young church there has only heard part of the Good News Message –the part that says God is coming. Whatthey do not fully get is that God has come in the person of Jesus and hasunleashed the Holy Spirit in the Church. Listen to the Word of the Lord.

Acts19:1-7

While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul passed through theinterior regions and came to Ephesus, where he found some disciples. He said tothem, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” Theyreplied, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” Then hesaid, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.”Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people tobelieve in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” On hearingthis, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. When Paul had laid hishands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke in tongues andprophesied— altogether there were about twelve of them.[1]

It appears that our friends inEphesus have only heard half the story. They were disciples of John the Baptist who were baptized into John’sbaptism that was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. It was a baptism of repentance because Johnwas declaring that one who was more powerful than him was coming and peopleneeded to be purified before that person got there. John’s baptism was a call to wash off thespiritual grime in one’s life and get your soul as clean, white and fresh asnewly washed sheets drying in the summer sun. John’s baptism is similar to the people saying, “Enough of the old me,I’m giving myself a new name to live into.” Our story today has Paul saying, in effect, “Hey that’s great and allbut it’s only part of the Story.”

You see, it’s one thing to have anewly washed spiritually life. It’s something entirely different with what youchoose to do with it after you get it all clean and spotless. This is what Paulis talking about.

Paul shares with the Ephesiansthat John the Baptist was right in the need to get ready. Paul also shares with the Ephesians the needto be baptized into the one they are getting ready for, and who indeed, hasalready come and will come again, namely Jesus. The late evangelical theologian, John Stott, commented on this verse assaying that the Ephesian disciples, although they had heard of John’s prophecy,had not heard that it had been fully fulfilled in Jesus. He says, “They were ignorant of Pentecost…theywere still living in the Old Testament which culminated with John theBaptist. They understood neither thatthe new age had been ushered in by Jesus, nor that those who believe in him arebaptized into him receive the distinctive blessing of the new age, theindwelling of the Holy Spirit.”[2]

The last month has been a flurryof activity at my house as we get ready for the big event in our family comingup this June - Kate’s wedding! There hasbeen a lot of planning and choosing and coordinating going on. I learned from my first daughter’s weddingfive years ago that my role as daddy is simply to do three essentialthings: shut up; show up; and payup. The difference between a wedding andmarriage highlights this difference between John’s baptism of repentance andPaul’s understanding of what it means to be baptized in the Name of Jesus. It’s the difference between adornment andbetrothment.

Baptism for repentance is likegetting adorned for the wedding. It’sgetting ready for the day when the groom or bride arrives. It’s getting washed up, hair done, dressed upand ready to be presented to the bride or groom in order to start a new lifetogether. Betrothment is the time when avow is made and promises are committed to enter into a new life together untildeath do us part. Betrothment is when weare baptized into the Name of Jesus and we vow to start a new life with him.[3] This is what Paul is getting at: a discipleis not just to get ready for Jesus; rather, a disciple is to vow a new andradical life in Jesus. And how do peopleknow whether you and I have been betrothed, married to Jesus? The Holy Spirit is manifested in us; peoplecan look at you and me and see the Spirit of God visible in us.

For those twelve disciples Paulmet, once they were baptized in Jesus’ name they began to show signs of theHoly Spirit through ecstatic speaking in tongues and speaking in prophecy. Our charismatic brothers and sisters wouldsay this is the only true manifestation of proving you have been baptized intothe Name of Jesus; if that were the case, not many of us in this room wouldqualify. Many tend to lift up speakingin tongues as the litmus test for spiritual inclusiveness with Jesus and failto remember that there are many spiritual gifts that are mentioned throughoutRomans 12 as well as in First Corinthians chapters 12 – 14. Do you remember the most important, the mostexcellent spiritual gift Paul speaks about? It’s the gift of love. It’s thegift of agape.

Beloved, our culture has anincomplete understanding of baptism. It’s not just for repentance of sins. It is both adornment and betrothment. Baptism is the trigger event that initiates us into a new way of living;it marks a new way of relating; it gives birth to life guided by the Spirit ofJesus. When Jesus condescended to hiscousin John to be baptized, it was not so much for washing Jesus’ sin away asit was the dramatic giving of the Holy Spirit upon him that would direct hisministry and purpose. It was his baptismthat propelled him forward to live into his name, Savior. Baptism, my friends, is more than a debutantewhere we are introduced into the world; baptism is the ignition switch thatlaunches us into a Holy Spirit-filled life of making a difference in theKingdom.

When we are baptized into the nameof Jesus, we make a vow to renounce our old God-destroying,neighbor-destroying, and self-destroying habits and attitudes of our lifebefore we became a Christ-Follower. Weturn our back on the past and we seek to live a life that purposefully seeks tolive like Jesus lived his life and to live in Jesus’ Name. It’s one thing to renounce an old way ofliving life and it’s another to live into a new one. And how do we live a new life in Jesus?

The great revivalist preacher,George Whitfield, highlights the spiritual marks of a person who has moved fromadornment to betrothment, a person who is baptized into the name of Jesus. I want to use them as a guide to see if ourlives, indeed, the life of this very church, are reflecting the marks of theHoly Spirit received into our life.[4] Let’s use them as a mirror to help usdetermine how well the Holy Spirit is illuminating forth from our lives sinceour baptisms.

Whitfield first says a lifeclaimed by the Spirit is a life that demonstrates a person has a passion forprayer for others and then for themselves. We are a people who are compelled to pray for and with others expectingGod to act in our world today.

Secondly, he says a life claimedby the Spirit is a life that is repulsed by sin. In other words, why would we traipse our waythrough a broken septic tank’s drain field and get covered with a mess and thenwant to walk back through it once we were made clean? It’s the same with sin. The thought of breaking God’s heart throughwillful and deliberate defacing of the image of God in another person or in theCreation should be repulsive to us.

Whitfield goes on to say that aswe live a new life in Jesus, our lives in the Holy Spirit should reflect that welive as alien citizens of the current world. Christians who have received the Holy Spirit should stand out to others“out there” in the “real world.” Sadly, WesternChristians more often than not stand out looking either like conservative orliberal fundamentalist nutcases that are out of touch with the needs ofpeople. One of things I am thrilledabout with UPPC is that we are not a church that is known in the community bywho the pastor is; on the contrary, this church is known in the community bythe ministry we execute! As a church, we stand out to others “out there” in thecommunity! Are we as individuals?

The fourth mark of the Holy SpiritWhitfield lifts up is the vibrant display of love. When people look at you and me or look atthis church, do they see that we love each other or do they see us quibblingand arguing, sniping and gossiping? Anew life in Jesus means that we not only love each other, but we are toactively love our enemies, those people who wrong us, hurt us, disgust us.

These, my friends, are the marksthat show we have been baptized into the Name of Jesus and have been given thegifts of the Holy Spirit. When we have apassion for prayer, are repulsed by sin, are living as Kingdom citizens, andactively loving all God’s people, then we are living betrothed lives withJesus. If all we are concerned about ishow pure we are, how well adorned we are, we’ve missed the boat. So, as we leave this day and begin a newweek, let these four questions lean on you a bit.

Does your life reflect a passionfor prayer?

Are you repulsed by sin and itsconsequences?

Does your life indicate you live asa citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven with Jesus as your Lord?

Are you actively, inconvenientlybut joyously loving others as Jesus has so loved you?

If yes, you are displaying themarks of the Holy Spirit of a life that has been baptized in the name of

Jesus. You are taking part of a baptized life. If not, God is gracious and is waiting for youto take the next move. And all of God’speople say, Amen!

Patrick H.Wrisley, D.Min. | Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

8101 27thStreet West | University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.UPPC.org | http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2012 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are availablefor the edification of members and friends of University Place PresbyterianChurch and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached withoutpermission. All rights reserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version,copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the NationalCouncil of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rightsreserved.

[2] John R. W. Stott, The Message of Acts. The Spirit, the Church& the World (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1990), 320.

[3] See http://www.thefreedictionary.com/betroth. Accessed on 1/7/2012.

[4] Selected sermons of GeorgeWhitfield, Marks of Having Received theHoly Ghost, from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/whitfield/sermons.xliv.html on 1/2/2012. Whitfield’s schema is: 1) Having a passionfor prayer and supplication; 2) A desire not to commit sin; 3) Conquest overthe world; 4) Loving one another; and 5) Loving our enemies.

New Year's Message - What's in a Name?

2012-01-02T16:37:00.001-05:00

Sermon: What’sin a Name?

Scripture: Luke 2.21-40

Preacher: Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: University Place Presbyterian Church

Date: January 1, 2012

Today we are picking up in Luke’s narrative where weleft off on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. As you listen to this Story, and if you are familiar with Matthew’sbirth narrative, you will notice that Luke’s version is a littledifferent. Today, Mary and Joseph bringthe baby Jesus to Temple for his bris, his naming, the baby’s dedication asbeing the first-born male of the parents, and for Mary’s purification ritualrequired by the Mosaic Law. In Matthew,we have the holy family escaping to Egypt to escape King Herod’s soldiers. Unlike Matthew’s version, we have Jesus, Maryand Joseph return to the hill country of Galilee to the little town ofNazareth. It does not mean that oneStory is correct and the other is wrong; it simply means that both Matthew andLuke are highlighting different aspects of the birth to shape the rest of theGospel Story as they seek to put it down.

Our texttoday winds up the Christmas birth stories in Luke. If you will remember from a few weeks ago,Luke begins with the visions to two older servants of God, Zechariah andElizabeth. Today, our Story has Lukebookending the birth narrative with two other older servants of God, Simeon andAnna. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Luke 2.21-40

Aftereight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was calledJesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb. Whenthe time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, theybrought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in thelaw of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to theLord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law ofthe Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

Nowthere was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous anddevout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spiritrested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would notsee death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeoncame into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to dofor him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms andpraised God, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you haveprepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentilesand for glory to your people Israel.” And the child’s father and mother wereamazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said tohis mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of manyin Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts ofmany will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.” There wasalso a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was ofa great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, thenas a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipedthere with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and beganto praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for theredemption of Jerusalem. When they had finished everything required by the lawof the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The childgrew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.[1]

It’s in our verses today that Luke, like a masterfulcomposer, outlines the symphonic score and theme that will be played outthroughout his two-volume narrative of Luke-Acts. And what does he outline for us about theGospel Story?

He first tells us that Jesus was raisedin a poor Jewish home whose parents took seriously their obligations to God andtheir faith. We see from the verybeginning of the Story that Jesus’ earthly parents are mindful of theirreligious heritage and the need to pass that on to a new generation. The mention of Jesus in the Temple alsopoints us to the future, as we know this will be the theater in which the finalact of his life will be played out.

Next, Luke shows us the type of peopleto whom Jesus will minister to and who will be the first ones to respond to theGood News. We see Jesus born a nobody intoa nobody family. Jesus is recognized by people who have a deep, simple faithlike Simeon and Anna as opposed to the first century tall-steeple synagogue andTemple officials.

Third, we read in today’s Story thatJesus’ very presence in the Gospel Story, in the people’s lives, will causedivision among people and will cause many to believe in God’s mighty works aswell as cause many to ridicule and doubt. We get a glimpse of the future pain he will undergo as we hear theenigmatic line by Simeon to Mary, “And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

Finally, we get the main thrust of theStory – Jesus’ ultimate purpose. We areclued into why he will cause the rising and falling of many. It’s all about God’s salvation of the people– not only for the Jews, but as we read in verse 32, for the Gentiles as well! You see, beloved, this Good News is firsthighlighted in our very first verse, verse 21, “And he was called Jesus.” His very name, Jesus, means ‘salvation’ andthat is exactly what Jesus came to do! This is Good News, indeed!

What’sin a name? To begin with, when you know someone’s name, you have a certain senseof power or control of him or her. Imagine yourself walking down BridgeportAvenue and someone calls out your name. What do you do? You stop, lookand see who called you out. When youknow someone’s name, you have the power to get his or her attention any timeyou want it. I mean, I can be talkinglike this and simply say “Nancy Keay” and I know her ears will perk up andthose around her will look at her! There’s power in a name! You canbe at a party in a discussion with others but hear your name mentioned fromacross the room and you immediately tune into it.

Do you remember the Story of Moses andhis first encounter with God on the Mountain in the burning bush? Do you remember the very first question Mosesasked God? He asked, “What’s Your Name?”[2] I think that Moses wanted to know God’s Namebecause he not only wanted to tell others who it is that sent him to releasethose in bondage in Egypt but I think Moses wanted to know God’s Name becauseit gave Moses a sense of control and a sense of Divine accountability. When Moses got in a scrape, he wouldunhesitatingly call upon Yahweh to help get him out. Knowing the Name tied Moses and God togetherin an intimate way.

What’sin a name? Well, secondly, a namedescribes the character of the person. It describes him or her and their values. When God told Moses his Name, Yahweh, God wasdescribing His character. Yahweh means,“I am what I am.” In other words, Godwas, is and will yet be the one Eternal I AM.

Jesus knew names were important andthat is why he changed Simon’s name to Peter, which means The Rock because itwould be upon Peter and his legacy that the Church would be built upon.

But then there is Jesus’ Name. It literally means, “Yahweh issalvation.” It means, Savior. And this is how Jesus lived out hislife. Jesus lived into his veryname. He brought comfort to thebroken. He challenged social systems thatdiscriminated or brought down people in order to raise the oppressed onesup. He breathed salvation; he broughtwholeness to those who were physically sick or socially outcast from family ortribe. He lived into his name as hesought to reimagine the Jewish faith moving it from a heavy set of lugubriouslaws to a compassionate message of love and grace. Even unto his last breath, Jesus wasbreathing hope and life into the life of another condemned criminal hanging ona cross next to him. The Name of Jesusdescribes who he is and what he does. Italso describes his character!

Note with me Philippians 2.9-11. It is one of the earliest creedal statementsfrom the early church and it says a lot about Jesus’ name! Listen!

Therefore God highly exalted him and gave him the name

that isabove every name,

so that at the name of Jesus,

every knee should bend,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess

that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God theFather!

There’s power in Jesus’ name! It describes who he is, what he does as wellas his character.

Friends, today marks the beginning of the New Year. It’s typically a time for reflection as wesift over the best and worst of last year and ponder what the coming year willbring. It’s a time we take stock of ourlife and flesh out new habits, disciplines, or practices we want to begin. I want to lift up for us a tool to use as weenter into this period of reflection and resolutions. It’s a tool that helps assist in forming andshaping your character and purpose. It’sa tool that you can use as a reference point as together we make it through thenext year together.

Thismorning, we have been looking at the question of what’s in a name. This morning,I encourage all of us to take a moment and think about our name. I’m not talking about the name you go or areknown by right now. No, I want each ofus to think about a name that you can use with yourself this New Year thatdescribes your purpose in life and in God, that describes your personality andthe way you do things, and a name that paints a picture of your character.

Years ago I baptized a young man in Florida who hadgrown up Jehovah Witness. Thistwenty-something gentleman was gay and his family totally disowned him, all inthe name of their faith. This young man was one of the most faithfuland loyal servants of the church we built. For over three years each Sunday morning, he would come to my house inorder to pack up a pick up truck of sound equipment and speakers from my livingroom and take it all to the movie theater that we met in each week. Following the service, he would tear it alldown and return it to my house. Healways smiled. He was always calm andlaid back. He always had a kind word foreveryone he met and I never saw him ever lose his temper. After three years, he wanted to be baptizedand join the church. This was a major deal for him. Standing in front of the congregation, Isaid, “No longer do I call you Bill but I call you Barnabas because you are ason of encouragement to so many!” Wegave him a new name that reflected his purpose, his passion and his character.

What’s yourname? If someone were to give you a newname, what would it be? What name do you want to call yourself andlive into for 2012?

Are you called, Encourager?

Maybe your name that describes who you want to be isGrace?

Perhaps the last year was hard and so this year youare going to live into the name Hope.

What about Faithful, Determined, Committed, orLoyal? Maybe your name for the New Yearis Kind, Playful, Patient, Prayerful, Forgiving or Bold. What is the name you want to live into as adisciple and follower of Jesus Christ this New Year? What name will you give yourself thatdescribes your purpose, passion and character?

Beloved, as you come to the Table this morning, Iinvite to you as you come forward to quietly tell the person giving you thepiece of bread a name God is whispering to you for your new year. Then, let the power of this meal take you outof this place and let the Holy Spirit haunt you to live into the new name youfeel called to give yourself! And all ofGod’s people said, Amen!

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

University Place Presbyterian Church

8101 27th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.uppc.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2012 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts areavailable for the edification of members and friends of University PlacePresbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preachedwithout permission. All rightsreserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council ofthe Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] See Exodus 3.1-15.

Christmas Eve Message - Let All Creation Sing for Joy!

2011-12-29T15:13:00.000-05:00

Sermon: Let AllCreation Sing for Joy!

Scripture: Psalm 96

Preacher: Dr. Patrick H.Wrisley

Location: UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

Date: Christmas Eve 2011

Psalm 96

¹O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to theLord, all the earth.

²Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of hissalvation from day to day.

³Declare his glory among the nations, hismarvelous works among all the

peoples.

⁴For great is the Lord, and greatly to bepraised; he is to be revered above all

gods.

⁵For all the gods of the peoples are idols, butthe Lord made the heavens.

⁶Honor and majesty are before him; strength andbeauty are in his sanctuary.

⁷Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,ascribe to the Lord glory and

strength.

⁸Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;bring an offering, and come into

hiscourts.

⁹Worship the Lord in holy splendor; tremblebefore him, all the earth.

¹⁰Say among the nations, “The Lord is king! Theworld is firmly established; it

shallnever be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.”

¹¹Let the heavens be glad, and let the earthrejoice; let the sea roar, and all

thatfills it;

¹²let the field exult, and everything in it. Thenshall all the trees of the forest

singfor joy

¹³before the Lord; for he is coming, for he iscoming to judge the earth. He will

judgethe world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.[1]

One of the great universal languagesall humankind relates with and understands is the language of music. Music is a cross-cultural language that cutsthrough background, class, color, ethnicity or religious preference. When someone says, “They love to listen tomusic,” what he or she is really saying, “I love how music moves me.” Listening to beautiful music is not apassive activity; it’s a very dynamic process that literally changes us as weexperience it.

When we hear the sound of music, webecome changed by it. Think aboutit: Music is producing sound which arewaves that move through space. Whathappens when sound hits a mass particles and molecules? Those particles, those molecules move andvibrate. When those vibrations hit our bodies and enter our ears, then wemove. We sway. We dance. Our body’s molecules are physically responding the sound and songs wehear. Music changes us. It affects us. How can you not listen to the fourth movementof Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and not be physically moved to the sound? How can you not listen to Bob Marley sing, “Onelove, one heart, let’s get together and it’ll be all right!” and not physicallyfeel and move to the melody? Listeningto, feeling music is a physical act!

The songs we sing at Christmas aregood examples of this fact. TheChristmas hymns and carols sung this time of year have this ability to move usin the very depth of our being. They cantake us, like the ghosts in Dickens’ ChristmasCarol, to different places in our lives. When we sing Silent Night, wejoin our voices with millions of others through the centuries who have liftedtheir voices on this glorious night forever changing all the people.

Beloved, tonight, we celebrate the fact that Jesus, the Sonof the God Most High is born. Psalm 96is a lectionary text used each and every year on Christmas Eve and Christmasbecause it is celebrating the invasion of our earthly order by the veryphysical presence of God in our midst through the baby born in the manger. And just as music once played or sung andwhose vibrations stir and shake the air around us, so the Divine sonic boomdeclaring the of inbreaking of God’s physical presence in the baby Jesus intoour world, into our life, causes vibrations that stir and move and cause reverberationsto all who hear of the Good News and Glad Tidings! To some, the sound of the Jesus cooing in themanger causes revulsion or disdain. Toothers, the sound of Jesus’ crying in the manger fall on deaf ears and theyhear nothing at all. Yet, to those whoseears are listening for it, to those whose ears are tuned to the pitch of God’svoice, the first wails of the Christ child are the melody of a beautiful,hopeful new song that even the entire creation senses and celebrates. Why? Because behold, this night in the City of David, a Savior, who is theMessiah, the Lord, is born.

The Psalmist tells you and me that we are notjust to sing but that we are to sing a newsong. The psalmist uses a word for ‘new’that means something fresh and unheard of, something not ever beforeimagined. Its root word means to repairthat which is broken.

Now we begin to understand a littlebetter! The songs we sing declaresomething fresh and unheard of, something never before imagined – that God theAlmighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth stooped down to become a person like youand me. Furthermore, this songcommunicates the fact that God’s inbreaking into our world through the babyJesus is a new song in that it seeks to repair that which has been broken andthat is a free-flowing love relationship between God and all people. And what is this new melody, thi new songthat describes the angelic chorus of God’s inbreaking into our world in Jesus? It’s a song, a melody, called Hope.

The great ancient theologian of thethird century, St. Augustine, defines hope this way. He said hope has two beautiful daughters.Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage tosee that they do not have to remain the way they are.[2]

Oh my friends, how I have beenoverwhelmed with the hopelessness of the world and of families these past sixmonths. The markets are fickle. Pledgesare behind. Marriages are gettingbuffeted against the rocks. One war isdeclared over while our men and women in uniform are simply shuffled to acountry next door to continue to fight. Weare a people whose successful careers are feeling the stress of economicrealities and whose businesses are struggling to get by or whose jobs have beeneliminated. We are people who have orare currently struggling with physical illnesses ranging from cancer todiabetes and depression to substance abuse. We are people whose long-standing relationships with people we know and loveare getting frayed on the edges and we feel a sense of isolation andloneliness.

One of the hardest things for me this past month has been myfeeble attempt to “catch” the elusive spirit of Christmas by going to themalls. I know, of all the places I go to really catch the Christmas spirit isthe mall? Yeah, I have issues! I walkedaround and looked at frantic faces of people scrambling to finish a list ofgift purchasing they cannot really afford. I see faces of people who see the shiny items in the store window andwistfully long to be able to buy that special something for that specialsomeone but simply cannot afford to do it. We then feel a sense of sadness that we cannot show others how much wereally love them as though loving others is about showering them with lavishgifts in the first place.

Someone sharedwith me the story of a homeless woman who was asked why she went everyday andbought a two-dollar lottery ticket. Herreply chilled me: Two-dollars is not too much for 24 hours of hope. Brothers andsisters, tonight we sing a new song of hope into the world as God has sung itinto our world through the birth of His son, Jesus.

Jesus is God’s way of doingsomething fresh, unheard of or ever imagined. It’s a song of hope. I was recentlystruggling to pin down and identify this elusive Christmas spirit becausefrankly, I didn’t know what I was supposed to feel. I sure didn’t find it atthe mall! And then a friend spoke a new song to me. I asked her, “Teresa, what do you think the Christmasspirit is? What’s it like?” Without hesitating she replied, “To me, theChristmas Spirit is when I can offer hope to other people around me.” She went on to say that it’s not about thegifts and garland or the tinsel and mistletoe; rather, it was what she could doin her own circumstances of life to shine the new song or hope into someoneelse’s life. In essence, it’s singingnew songs to people that Almighty God has stooped down into our world and becameone of us. Those vibrations have not stoppedand cannot be stopped no matter how much hope-less-ness our world shoves in ourface.

This past week Vaclav Haveldied. He was one of the architects thatbrought about the Velvet Revolution, i.e. the fall of communism in the formerSoviet block. He was a poet as well asone of the new Presidents of the new Czech Republic. In all his years of oppression and suffering,he reflected, “I am not an optimist, because I am not sure that everything endswell. Nor am I a pessimist, because noteverything ends badly. I just carry hopein my heart…Life without hope is an empty, boring and useless life. I cannot imagine that I could strive forsomething if I did not carry hope in me. I am thankful to God for this gift.”[3]

Hope, my beloved, hope is the newsong, the unheard of song of God being born in the baby Jesus. It is a song whose very sounds and vibrationswill shake, rattle, and roll our lives mired in the world’s hopelessness. Do you feel the Lord speaking to you saying,“Spread the Christmas Spirit – bring hope to those who have not gotten it yet”? You see, this is the way we keep the musicand song of Christmas alive and moving into the future. It’s not that God needs us to do that butwhen we join in singing the words of hope of the newborn Christ, we become likebass-thumping amplifiers shaking the very foundations of hell and brokennesswith the new song of life in Jesus.

Once upon a time, a woman and her sonprepared to set off for the 11:00 p.m. Christmas Eve worship at their church. Thehusband decided that he would stay home and enjoy the evening unencumbered bychurch stuff. As he watched his family leave in the car, he could see that itwas starting to snow.  While reading the newspaper, the man thought he heardsome knocking at the window, some more knocking and then something that soundedlike pecking.  He opened the curtains, and he could see that the snow hadintensified and that the wind had picked up. He also saw a whole flock of birdsin his lawn. A few had flown into his window seeking shelter from the storm. The birds acted as if they were all disoriented.He could see that they would be in trouble if they didn't find shelter so hethought he would scare them away by flicking the porch light on and off. Butthey wouldn't go.

So the man wentout on the porch and caused a tremendous racket, hoping that they would fly offto safety. But they still wouldn't go.  

Then the manthought, “I have a barn that might offer them shelter from the storm.” So heput on his jacket, went outside, pulled the barn doors wide open and put on alight, hoping to attract the birds inside to safety. But they wouldn't come.

Then the man thenthought, “Food! Food will bring them into the barn!” So he went inside, tooksome bread, and tossed breadcrumbs in a path that would lead them to the barn.Still, the birds would not come.  

The man,feeling so much for these birds, said to himself, “Oh, I wish that I couldbecome a bird so that I could show them how much I care for them and that I allI want to offer them is life.”  Just then, in the distance, the church bellsrang, announcing the birth of the Savior.[4] And the soundof that new song and melody, the music the man heard was Jesus whispering,“Come!”

Beloved,this night, in the City of David, a Savior is born! The new song he sings is a song of hope thatwill help propel and move us forward in the direction our hopes want to carryus. The best part about it, his new song resounds forever!

Shhh, listen myfriends. Listen to the cooing cries ofthe baby in the manger guaranteeing that God brings hope to our hopeless worldand it’s a new song that we can always tap into and hear. All we have to do is listen for it.

Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

University Place Presbyterian Church

8101 27th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.uppc.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts areavailable for the edification of members and friends of University PlacePresbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preachedwithout permission. All rightsreserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council ofthe Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[2] From Robert McAfee Brown as quoted from an article inContext by Martin E. Marty, 1February 1992, 3.

[3] Vaclav Havel, ReadersDigest, 1991. Accessed from www.homileticsonline.com on December 15, 2011.

[4] Norman Wahl, FaithLutheran Church, St. Charles, Minn., in Ecunet  [database online], cited 12January 1995, norman_wahl,parti@ecunet.org.

The Message: God's Greatest Servants are the Nobodies!

2011-12-19T16:00:00.001-05:00

Sermon: God’s Greatest Servants are the Nobodies!

Scripture: Luke 1.26-38

Preacher: Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: University Place Presbyterian Church

Date: December 18, 2011; Advent Four

Over the course of the last four weeks, our GODaily readings have been slowly movingus forward to this point: The Annunciationand the “Christmassy” texts of the Bible. One morning, Kelly finished reading the lessons for the day and blurtedout, “Ugh! Where are the birth andChristmas stories!? We keep reading fromRevelation and the Minor Prophets! I’mready for the Christmas stories!” I justsmiled knowing that there are many of us making our way through the GODaily readings wondering the exactsame thing. Kelly’s comments reminded methat all of us want to rush to Christmas.

All of us are eager forthe big day to arrive when we can sing the Christmas carols and hymns about thebaby Jesus’ birth. And yet, just likewaiting for a real child to be born, we have to wait. We cannot hurry the process. We have to be patient. Advent and our GODaily readings are doing exactly what they are supposed todo: Build up anticipation for the birthof Son of God. So, for those of you whohave been chomping at the bit for the Christmassy texts to get here, today isthe day!

Today we are reading fromLuke’s gospel, chapter 1, verses 26-38. It’soften referred to as “The Annunciation” whereupon Mary gets word she is goingto bear a child. Let’s get a refresheron the background of our Story before we hear it again.

Onlytwo of the four biblical Gospels have a written record of the earthly birth ofJesus. First, there is Matthew who tellsthe birth narrative from Joseph’s point of view. Then there is our record today in Luke. Luke’s version of the birth story is writtenfrom Mary’s point of view. Contextually,Luke 1.5 though 25 describe the how the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah andtells him his wife Elizabeth is going to give birth to a son and his name willbe John. Zechariah is incredulous becausehe and Elizabeth are no spring chickens and are up there in years. They’ve beentrying to have kids for decades but were not able to. Now his post-menopausal wife would bear ababy boy whose name would be John.

Next we have today’s story of the Annunciation. Immediately following our today’s story, wehave another Story about Elizabeth and Mary and the description of the babyJohn going to the Temple for his naming and bris. With all this in mind, let’shear the Word of the Lord!

Luke1.26-38

²⁶In the sixth month the angel Gabriel wassent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, ²⁷to a virgin engaged to a man whose namewas Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And he came to her and said, “Greetings,favored one! The Lord is with you.” ²⁹But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greetingthis might be. ³⁰Theangel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹And now, you will conceive in your womband bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. ³²He will be great, and will be called theSon of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of hisancestor David. ³³Hewill reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be noend.” ³⁴Marysaid to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” ³⁵The angel said to her, “The Holy Spiritwill come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you;therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. ³⁶And now, your relative Elizabeth in herold age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who wassaid to be barren. ³⁷Fornothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with meaccording to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.[1]

Youknow, there’s something about Mary. Forcenturies, people have been wrapped up in the person known as the Mother ofGod. Catholics adore her. Calvin andother Protestants didn’t and don’t know what to do with her. It reminds me ofthe well-known story of a little boy who desperately wanted a bicycle. All of his friends had one but hedidn’t. His mother suggested he take hisconcerns to the Holy Mother Mary in prayer. The little boy wrote a prayer out on a small piece of paper, folded itin his hands and prayed, “Mary, Mother of God, could you see that I get abicycle? All my friends have one.” Hethen placed the folded prayer next to a little statue of Mary on hisdresser. He woke up the next morning tofind he didn’t get a bike. So, thelittle boy repeated the same process every night for a week and he still didn’thave a bike.

The boy hadenough of this. So before he went tobed, he took the statue of Mary, wrapped it carefully in a towel and placed inthe back corner of his dresser drawer. He goes to his bed, kneels and folds his hands in prayer and matter offactly begins to pray, “Dear Jesus, if you ever want to see your mother again,I had better get a bike!”[2]

Whatare we to do with Mary? Venerated bysome and ignored by many, we may not know what the significance is for God’schoosing Mary and what it has to do with us. This is what I would like to look at briefly today.

Ipropose that what our Story has to do with us, with what Mary has to do withus, is that it we see very clearly that God is a God of and for the nobodies inthe world. Furthermore, because God is aGod of and for the nobodies in the world, we learn something about God’scharacter. We learn about God’s purposes. We learn about how the possibilities of Godalways trump the impossibilities of the world.

When God seeks and chooses the world’snobodies to accomplish heavenly plans, we learn something of God’s character. Unlike the other gods people worshipped inantiquity who were so high and mighty they kept their heads stuck in thecelestial clouds and who dealt arbitrarily with the mere mortals of the Earth,the Lord Almighty dares to personally come down and live among us. From the ancient religions and Greekmythology to our contemporary self-help gurus, the focus has been our humanattempts to prove ourselves worthy of love in the eyes of the Creator. But this isn’t the character of the God wholoves and champions the nobodies. TheTriune God we love and serve is a Triune God that came to love and serve usfirst! The Lord God is not a capricious,fatalistic puppeteer pulling our life’s strings because He gets a kick out ofseeing people get sick or natural disasters reign havoc and destruction or environmentalapocalypses envelope our planet. Thecharacter of our God is a God who champions the little person, the nobody. God’s character is to build His children aplayground called Life where we can enjoy it, revel and marvel in it as Godsteps into it and interacts and plays with us. The character of our God is ahands-on God, a get involved in the daily life of the people God, the littlepeople, the nobodies like an old woman beyond childrearing years whoseneighbors thought she was morally or spiritually deficient because she wasn’table to have kids. God gets involvedwith a teenaged girl from a backwater town of about 160 residents in the remotehills of Judea. When the angel Gabriel comes upon Elizabeth and Mary, we learnthere is something different about this God Gabriel serves. We learn it’s a hands-on God who comes to thenobodies of the world.

We also learn something about God’s purposes whenGod chooses the nobodies of the world. Why choose Elizabeth and Zechariah along with Mary and Joseph? Why not choose the other great rulers who arementioned in the first chapter of Luke like the “most excellent Theophilus”[3] or King Herod? Why not go straight to Caesar in Rome andstart right at the top of the power grid of the first century movers andshakers? Why not go the Jewish HighPriest and set the record straight?

In ourGODaily readings over the course of Advent, we have been reading in theprophets and Minor Prophets about God’s purposes. It’s to bring the nation and her people backto Godly worship. How do we know thathas happened? When the people put Godfirst and then their neighbor next. Overand over again the purposes of God have been revealed to us that we are to freethe oppressed, deal justly with those in community, and not be selfish but toadvocate to the needs and rights of others.

You see, it’sthe leaders who are crushing the spirits of the people. It’s the leaders who are not showing what itmeans to deal justly with the poor. It’sthe leaders who are not leading from the front of the community, demonstratingwhat it means to be a Godly man or woman of strategic leverage for thecommunity.

The purposesof God are not to lord over but to work with the people.

The purposesof God are not to impose top down control and authority but to create a dynamicspiritual, ethical movement from the grassroots upward.

The purposesof God are not to decree divine edicts but to incarnationally come along sidewith us and show us how to do it.

But in orderto show his purpose, God had to use the people who were considered the nobodiesof the world - people like the inconsequential hillbilly carpenter and histeenaged fiancé. Why? The high and mighty would enforce anedict whereas the low and grungy would start movement.

Ultimately, our Story reminds us that thepossibilities of God always trump the impossibilities of the world. Who would’ve thought that the God King Davidwanted to build an elaborate Temple for would enshrine himself instead in aadolescent teenager? Who would havethought an old woman on the backside of her life would give birth to theprophet, the Baptizer, who would prepare the way for the coming Messiah? Who would have thought that this pregnantunmarried teenager would have not been found out and then stoned for heradultery? Who would have thought Godwould go to the ancient equivalent of Coulee City, Washington to bring goodnews to the poor and salvation to all humankind?

You see, thisis why God uses the nobodies in the world! God wants to show us what ispossible through the sheer impossibility in our life! This way, we cannot take credit for it. This way, we guard against looking to heavenor at others and boastfully exclaim, “I don’t need you or you or you! I’ve got it all figured out on my veryown!” We become spiritual Mr. Potterswho think we can force and buy out those George Bailys[4] who don’t get along withus or with whom we disagree with. Or aspoet David Budbill writes,

I want to be

famous

so I can be

humble

about being

famous.[5]

Beloved, Goddoes not want us to be famous so we can be humble about being famous becausethat is just at the point you and I start getting in the way. God chooses the nobodies to prove thepossibilities of God in the midst of life’s impossibilities because we cannotget in the way and claim a victory that is not ours to begin with as well as claimpower we don’t have. You see, the wordin verse 37 that says ‘impossible’ literally means “without power.” Thereis nothing that can escape, there is nothing that has the power or ability tohinder the movement of God’s power through the Holy Spirit. Even little Mary getting overshadowed by theSpirit and conceiving a child in her womb.

There isnothing that can prevent God’s power being demonstrated to a single mother oftwo who is scraping to get by and pay the rent.

There isnothing that can prevent God’s power to manifest itself to a brokenrelationship and provide rebirth to a marriage that appears irreparable.

There is nota single thing that has the power to stop God from bringing wholeness to thelife of one who is racked with illness.

There isnothing that can stop the weighty advance of God’s love in a world full ofhatred and greed, of war and famine, and of sickness and disease. Nothing, my beloved, nothing is impossible –nothing is outside of God’s power to accomplish! And be still and listen now for the key onhow to unleash the uncontrollable power of the living, dynamic God in yourlife! It’s given to this little nobodyin the Story. It’s given to her in orderto accomplish cosmic things for God. It’s given to Mary, little inconsequential Mary, so that God theAlmighty might show His love through the weak and small ones. And here’s the key that Mary holds right herein verse 38:

Here I am…letit be according to your word.

Here I am…letit be according to your word.

Here I am…let it be according to your word.

The key forGod to use you and me, the ragamuffins that we are, to use Brennan Manning’sterm[6], to see God’spossibilities in our impossible lives is this: Place it in God’s lap as a trust and let it go. Let’s gather all the garbage in our life –the broken marriages, the job problems, the financial squeezes, the strugglesat school or with roommates – take whatever it is and place it on the Father’slap! Tell the Lord, “Let it be accordingto your word! That’s what Mary did. She took God at God’s word and then lived herlife expecting the Lord to do what he said he would do.

My belovedragamuffins, my fellow nobodies, what is it that you and I need to place inGod’s lap?

And all ofGod’s people say, “Amen!”

Patrick H. Wrisley,D.Min.

Senior Pastor &Teaching Elder

University PlacePresbyterian Church

8101 27th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.uppc.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches ofChrist in the United States of America. Used by permission. Allrights reserved.

[2] Dan Shutters, “Laugh Lines,” Presbyterians Today, 1997, 3.

[3] Theophilus literally means “friend of God” (theos +phileo).

[4] Characters from the classic movie, It’s a Wonderful Life.

[5] David Budbill, Dilemma in Good Poems, edited by Garrison Keillor (New York: VikingPublishing, 2002), 37.

[6] See his book at http://www.amazon.com/Ragamuffin-Gospel-Bedraggled-Beat-Up-Burnt/dp/1590525027.

Message: What Does Salvation Look Like from God's Point of View?

2011-12-16T14:29:00.001-05:00

Sermon: WhatDoes Salvation Look Like From God’s Point of View?

Scripture: Isaiah 61:1-4,8-11

Preacher: Dr.Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

Date: December 11, 2011

Today’s text describes people whoare like us in that they are caught between the already blessed and redeemedand the still unknown not-yet. Ourreading comes in what is described as Third Isaiah. First Isaiah goes from Isaiah 1 – 39. It talks about the exile that is comingbecause of the people’s rebelliousness.

Second Isaiah begins with chapter40 with the good news to “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to herthat she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has receivedfrom the Lord’s hands double for all her sins.” Second Isaiah is full of hope that God is going to redeem the peoplefrom exile in Babylon and bring them back home to the Promised Land.

Our text falls in Third Isaiah. By this time, the people have come back fromexile and are living in and around Jerusalem. They have rebuilt the walls of the city and the Temple the best theycould but the walls, the Temple, and life in general are still not like theyused to be. Though they have receivedthe promise of coming back home and being restored as a people, they still havea long way to go before they will once again regain the glory days of Solomonand the Kings. A contemporary of Isaiahwas the prophet, Haggai, and this is how he describes the same scene in Haggai2:3:

“Who is left among you that sawthis house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing?” And this is where we pick up inour Story. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; hehas sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted,to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; ²to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; ³to provide for those who mourn in Zion— togive them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning,the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. They will be called oaks ofrighteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. ⁴Theyshall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations;they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations…

⁸For I theLord love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give themtheir recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. ⁹Their descendants shall be known among thenations, and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shallacknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed. ¹⁰Iwill greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for hehas clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robeof righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a brideadorns herself with her jewels. ¹¹Foras the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in itto spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring upbefore all the nations.[1]

This morning, I want us to look atthe concept of salvation from God’s point of view as outlined in our text. I want us to expand our mind andunderstanding of what salvation is so that we Christ-Followers can fully liveinto a saved and a redeemed life.

SALVATION FROM GOD’S POINT OF VIEWIS BOTH A PRESENT AND FUTURE REALITY. For the returning Jews, their salvationwas repatriation to the Land of Promise and that repatriation requiredsacrifice and hard work.

The Jews who were exiled intoBabylon were a people who spent a generation away from the Promised Land. The Jews in our Story had the memory of whatGod through David and Solomon had done, the mighty armies of the Lord, theexquisite Temple, and the respect of all the surrounding nations. They also knew what it was like to lose itall and be sent into a foreign land. Some of them prospered there while others perished. They became acclimated to the Babylonian wayof life, a life that was often at odds with the ways of a life with God.

But God called them home. God made ways for the exiled to comeback. For the Jews returning toPalestine, their salvation was a present day liberation and restoration. Their salvation was to go back home and onceagain build the city where God’s Spirit dwells. Yet, as they go back, the returning exiles had to face ridicule fromneighbors. They faced oppression fromsurrounding enemies. The city of Davidwas in ruins and the Temple destroyed. Yes, their salvation was a present reality – they were redeemed and backhome – but the full glory of their repatriation was not complete. Together they had to work with God inbuilding for the future promise – a promise that would have all the nationslook to Israel and call them “Blessed by God!” (vs. 9). But this would take time. Their salvation was given to them but itwould take time for it to come to its full beauty and fruition.

Friends, there are too manyWestern Christians today who have forgotten this both/and-ness. We tend to see salvation as what’s to come inthe life hereafter. In other words, you better have your life in order now sothat in the next life, you will have it better! In the South, we call it turn now or burn later! For those who practice Eastern religion thatpromotes karma and reincarnation, it means live well now so you don’t come backin the next life as a bug. This is whyChristians don’t believe in reincarnation! We believe God in Christ has redeemed us now and that in the future, wewill be born again with glorified bodies in heaven and not reborn to an earthlyexistence to try to do it better next time.

Beloved, through Jesus, we aremade whole with God. We are saved. Yes, our salvation has its end point in theconsummation of time when all the world we be transformed in the blink of aneye and we are with God. But we can’tforget that the majority of the time Jesus spoke of salvation, it was in thepresent tense; our salvation shapes the way our lives are shaped today.

From God’s point of view,SALVATION IS ALSO BOTH PERSONAL AND SOCIAL. This is another important spiritual principle many in the Americanchurch forget. We tend to thinksalvation is all about ME and Jesus. It’sall about MY redemption and that Jesus shed his blood for ME! Salvation has become a narcissistic commoditythat enhances my eternal station with God and blessings that are poured into mypersonal life now. We want worship to MYliking, sermons that appeal to MY sensibilities, programs and ministries thatmeet MY personal needs. The deal is,salvation isn’t just about ME. It’sabout you and me. It’s about us.

Theologian Paul Hanson refers tothe first four verses of our text today as being written to be interpreted bothsingularly and collectively. The “servant”that is speaking to us in Isaiah 61 is both an individual and a “community” andthat its ambiguity is intentionally written that way.[2] So, Isaiah 61 can be read in this manner:

The spiritof the Lord is upon me (upon us as a nation of Israel) because the Lord hasappointed me (and the nation of Israel); he has sent me (and the nation ofIsrael) to bring good news to the oppressed, bind up the broken-hearted. He has sent me (and the nation of Israel) toproclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners. He has appointedme (and the nation of Israel) to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

Salvation, beloved, is proclaimedto and by the individual but it’s also proclaimed to and by the wholecommunity. Salvation is not a personalprized possession but is a gift given to the entire people.

The Church needs to recover thatunderstanding. For too long we haveproclaimed the Gospel as a way for people to become saved, which it is, but wehave neglected the dynamic power of the Gospel to change, shape, and redeemwhole communities. Salvation is not justME and Jesus but it’s WE and Jesus!

It was not a person but a movementof the whole Church that swept through and created the Reformation and broughtthe Bible from the hands of religious clerics into the hands of the commonperson.

It was not a person but a movementof the whole Church that saw slavery in America as a stain on our nation’sunderstanding of God.

It was not a person but a movementof the Church that helped catapult Martin Luther King’s dream of equal rightsinto the national mainstream.

It was not a person who broughtdown the Berlin Wall but a movement of the whole Eastern block church that metunderground and protested and rallied nations to push for freedom and liberty. Salvation incarnated through the bodies ofchurches as a community have great spiritual power to affect social “Good News-ing”in our communities.

Lastly, SALVATION REQUIRES ACTION ASWE REACH OUT IN HOPFUL ANTICIPATION FOR THE FUTURE. In other words, we are called to live intothe future Kingdom we are waiting for. As we cling to our hope of God’s inbreaking in the future, just as therepatriated Jews were longing for the grand re-emergence of the Temple and theglory of Israel’s past to be made real once again, we are called to work alongwith God to make it happen. The Templewould not be rebuilt if the people didn’t get to work. The returned exiles would not become aunified community if they did not all work at following the Law of theProphets.

Salvation, my friends, is a veryactive thing! It is not getting saved byJesus and then sitting back and reaping the benefits of the blessing of God;salvation means we acknowledge that like the repatriated Jews, we have work todo in the here and now in order to help God shape the Kingdom as best wecan.

The Rev. Arthur Cribbs reflects onhow as a boy, he almost died from a sever asthma attack. He remembers that it was his grandmother whosat by his side and fervently prayed for his healing and he credits her actionswith what saved him. Her prayers made the difference. He says, “If our faith is to have meaning atall, we must understand our purposes as making a critical difference in theworld. As people of faith we should beconsidered dangerous and a threat to every system and instrument of injustice,destruction, and human alienation. Whenever and wherever efforts are forged to divide humanity and wagewar, we should be driven to declare God’s will. We are called to remind the powers-that-be that we are divinely ordainedto live in peace with justice for all; we are called to be makers of peace.”[3]

Before the end of the Cold War, Iwent with nine other seminary students to East Germany in the dead of what wasat that time the coldest winter on record. We were on our way to the infamous Buchenwald Prison were some 45,000Jews and Russians were executed or gassed and we stopped in the town of Weimarfive miles away to take a break before we got there. I thought to myself, how could the goodChristian people of Weimar watch the over 250,000 people stuffed into cattlecars making their way to and from the prison camp, or see the crematory oven’ssmoke in the distance, and not do anything? Did they feel revulsion? Did theyfeel moved to make a difference? Or arethey the ones who pulled the trigger? The people of Weimar surely did not live obvious and publicly redeemedlives of faith that could be considered a dangerous threat to systems andinstruments of injustice, destruction, and human alienation. Thequestion comes around to us: do we?

The prophet Isaiah calls to youand me; he calls the community of the Church to be the dangerous threat tosystems and instruments of injustice, destruction, and human alienation. It’s the Church that is charged to bring goodnews to the oppressed. We are called tobind up the broken hearted and to proclaim deliverance and release to those whoare imprisoned either in a cell or in their personal hell. We are to proclaim the year of the Lord’sfavor – a Jubilee – that demands all people be made equal again. We are to comfort those who mourn and we arecalled to be about being a voice of peace and hope in a world that is out ofcontrol.

One of my spiritual giants is thelate Catholic mystic and priest, Thomas Merton. Merton had entered the monastery as a very self-willed and worldly-thinkingman. It took some years for him to havean awakening to what God was trying to tell him. He had a revelation one day in the shoppingdistrict of Louisville, Kentucky at the corner of Walnut and Fourth Avenue,surrounded by shoppers, business people and the poor. He writes,

“I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all thosepeople, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to oneanother even though we were total strangers… There is no way of telling these people thatthey are all walking around shining like the sun.”[4]

As we get ready for Christmasmorning and the birth of the Savior, let’s truly ponder salvation as a peopleof God. Do we see others in the largercommunity – the rich and the poor, the homeless and the landed homeowners, thefat and the starving, the Occupiers and the Bankers, the young and healthy withthe old and infirm, do we see them all as walking about shining like thesun? If so, our personal faith life willshow it. Our church’s life will show it. And when we do, we point to the world theupcoming birth of God.

Patrick H. Wrisley,D.Min.

SeniorPastor & Teaching Elder

UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

8101 27thStreet West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.UPPC.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermonmanuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends ofUniversity Place Presbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed,published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[2] Paul D. Hanson,Isaiah 40-66. Int. (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1995), 223.

[3] Arthur Cribbs,“Prayer: Connecting to the Divine Presence,” December 29, 2002. Accessed12/7/11 at http://www.csec.org/csec/sermon/cribbs_4611.htm.

[4]Thomas Merton, from “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander.”

Message: The Recipe for Repentance

2011-12-14T12:47:00.000-05:00

Sermon:         A Recipe for Repentance
Scripture:       Mark 1:1-8
Preacher:       Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley
Location:       University Place Presbyterian Church
Date:              December 4, 2011, Advent Number Two, Year B

In the pew racks this morning, you will discover a brochure put together to help us learn about the seasons of the Church year, also known as the Liturgical Year. Liturgy literally means work and when applied to worship, it refers to the work of the people during the worship experience itself. The liturgical calendar walks us through the life of Jesus and his Church working as a guide to reinforce the Stories we read in our GODaily readings. This season of Advent is the beginning of the Church year; it is the beginning of the church’s liturgical calendar. Advent literally means ‘coming’ or ‘arrival.’ For Christ-Followers, it means the coming of God’s personal inbreaking into our world to make sure we hear the salvation message from His lips straight to our ears. And this is the message we hear immediately from the beginning of Mark’s Good News. Mark gives us, the hearer’s of the Gospel, the punch line of his whole Story from the very first sentence. We are clued into things characters in the Story are not aware of themselves. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

Mark 1:1-8

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

2As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,
“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way;
3the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight,’”

4John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”[1]

“The beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” This is the first note that is struck in Mark’s Story. The news is positive, it is redemptive and it is just the start of it! Sadly, though, we often hear this text, we often hear words of the Baptist, as dour words, negative words, or heavy words. First we have all this Good News talk and then we are immediately thrown into all this repentance stuff. Our culture today has misinterpreted John’s words as bad news when his talk of repentance is really very, very Good News indeed!

You see, John the Baptist is quoting two Hebrew texts: one is from Isaiah 40:3-4 and the other is Malachi 3:1. These two prophets are used by God to let the people know that though times have been bleak, though the people have forsaken God, though the people have forsaken each other, God is coming to set things right and is coming to set life back on track. For the exiled Jew, this would be fantastic news to hear! For the exiled Jew, this would assure you that God does not forget the people he has chosen and loves, no matter how bad the straights in which they find themselves. Indeed, if you go and read all four chapters of the Book of Malachi, you will see how it points to the coming of John the Baptist.

You may be thinking, “Okay Preacher, so repentance is intertwined with Good News?” Absolutely! When people heard John’s words, they got excited. They became ecstatic with anticipation that Messiah was coming and would be victorious in reestablishing the Kingdom of God in the world. For them, his words were the equivalent to, “Wake up! It’s time to get ready for God’s arrival!”

Advent, beloved, is the time we wake up and get ready for God’s arrival. And how does the Baptist tell us to get ready? Is it with Christmas decorations and hanging the stockings with care? Is it fighting malls, crowds, and discovering you know the King’s English when you’re driving on I-5? Is it spending money you don’t really have to spend? No. John tells us the way we prepare is through the Good News of a baptism of repentance.

When we hear of baptism, we often think of water. We often hear scripture like today’s text and we focus on the water baptism – the physical washing. Yet if we slow down a little bit, we will see the baptism that has foremost importance in John’s preaching is the baptism of repentance (vs. 4). In other words, before there is an external washing, there must first be an internal washing – a baptism of repentance. Baptism is a washing away of impurity much like a surgeon will meticulously wash her arms before heading into surgery. John didn’t come preaching a baptism of water; John came preaching a baptism of inner washing of the soul and spirit. The Dean of Duke Chapel, Will Willimon, writes, “Like the prophets of old, John’s word strikes abrasively against the easy certainties of the religious Establishment. He will let us take no comfort in our rites, traditions, or ancestry. Everybody must submit to be made over. Everybody must descend into the waters, especially the religiously secure and the morally sophisticated.”[2] How do we do this? How can we in our Advent preparations for the coming Presence of God get ready? How do we make a way through the spiritual desert of our soul to greet the King of Glory who will fill our internal deserts with green, verdant life? John gives us a simple three-part recipe.

The first ingredient is Recognition and we are to recognize two different things. The first is that God is coming. God is breaking into our lives and is setting up a home in us. The second thing we are called to recognize is the condition of our spiritual houses. What shape will God find our spiritual houses in? Is there trash to be taken out? Is there cleaning that needs to be done? Are there items of furniture that really don’t fit anymore and need to be thrown out to make room at the table for Jesus? Recognizing God’s oncoming arrival and the concomitant need for us to get our spiritual houses in order to make it fitting for God’s indwelling is the first ingredient in John’s recipe.

The second ingredient is Relinquishment. One cannot answer the door and shake someone’s hand unless he puts something down first. It’s one thing to recognize God’s arrival and our need to get ready but it’s entirely something else to relinquish our old ways and habits. This is one reason why John and Jesus’ ministry were couched as Good News, liberating news, because now one could live their lives with God differently than before. But this is also the same reason John and Jesus’ words and actions were seen as threatening to the religious status quo.

In order to make room for God in our lives we have to give up certain attitudes, behaviors, and assumptions about what it means to live as a follower and child of God. It means to relinquish the pride that we know it all; it means to relinquish our material finances and possessions and acknowledge that there is a growing disparity in our nation between the haves and have not’s; we are to question whether we are part of the solution or are a part of the problem. It means to relinquish those behaviors that destroy the image of God in other people through demeaning comments, through demeaning their position in our society, or through demeaning them by using them to get what we want in our lives. A drunk cannot get sober unless he or she puts down the bottle. A broken marriage cannot be mended unless both parties let go of past hurts and then rejoin their hands in mutual solidarity. A friend cannot mend a broken heart unless that friend drops what they’re doing and gently holds the shattered person’s face and says, “You are beloved of God and you are loved.” John is reminding us that before we can receive the gift, we have to let go of what we currently cling to tightly.

The final ingredient in John’s recipe for repentance is Reorientation. At its core, repentance means to turn in the other direction. It means to strike out on a different course and to take a different path. It means to reorient one’s spirit and soul to the magnetic north of God’s loving call as opposed to our culture’s, our life’s neon colored signs of instant gratification. It’s about replacing hubris with humility, with replacing hoarding with showering grace in all its forms onto others, and with replacing petty hatred with a pillowy heart of love. It means to realign our actions with what we say we believe.

Beloved, Advent is a reset button the church liturgical year inserts for us. Sometimes our computer locks up and we have to do a hard reset and turn the machine off and then back on to recalibrate the software. This is what Advent is about; it’s what John is asking us to do. And how do we do that? We prepare by washing our souls and spirits with a washing of turning around back to God.

This morning we come to the Lord’s Table and receive a banquet. It is a reminder that God is coming and is coming again. As we come to the Table this Advent, let’s hear the Good News and use this time as a way to recognize God, to relinquish all that is keeping us away from Him and from others, and then actively reorient our spirits, our lives, our church and her mission to the Way of God made plain and visible by Jesus Christ, the Son of God! And all of God’s people say, “Amen!”

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.
Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder
University Place Presbyterian Church
8101 27th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716
www.uppc.org
http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of University Place Presbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] From Repent. The Importance of Baptism by William Willimon accessed on 11/29/11 from http://web.archive.org/web/20051204005535/http://bruderhof.com/articles/Repent.htm?. Originally from On a Wild and Windy Mountain (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984).

A Note to the UPPC Worship Family: An Upcoming Experiment

2011-11-22T18:00:00.001-05:00

Be Aware of a Change in Worship

Over the last several weeks, many on the Worship Team,including both staff and elders, have been discussing the possible need for aslight adjustment in worship.

What’s the adjustment and why are we doing it? We are going to experiment for a few monthsby using the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible on the screens duringworship. We are finding that the currentNew International Version is causing some confusion. Though the NIV is a goodreadable translation, it has gone through several revisions since it first cameout in 1984. There are four or five of the revisions that are floating in thedigital world as well as in our people's personal Bibles. The latestchange made to the NIV was this year. The problem this has raised is thatwhat is being read by our readers and pastors is not the same as what peopleare trying to follow along with on the screen. Patrick and our screenprojections use the 1984 version, for example. Taeler uses the TNIV and ourscripture readers are using the online 2011 version. This causes the worshipper to experience a 'liturgical bump' or ‘burp’that distracts from the flow of worship by causing many to wonder, “Why aren’tthe words being read the same as the words on the screen?”

We are going to experiment for a few months with this revision to the NRSVand I am including a digital link on where you can find it. You may findit at http://bible.oremus.org/. The New Revised Standard Version is an excellent version whosetranslation is very accurate to the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts. It is also sensitive in its inclusivity as tohow the writers were communicating.

Letter from Patrick, November 17, 2011

2011-11-17T13:34:00.001-05:00

Thisweekend, we have the Rev. Dr. Gary Hansen as our Preacher. Gary is Assistant Professor of ChurchHistory at the University of DubuqueTheological Seminary and has been gracious to come and lead discussionsthis weekend on the history of the Bible and how the King James Version of theBible was so vital in getting the scriptures into the hands of common folk likeyou and me. It is the 400^thbirthday for the KJV and we will meet at St.Luke’s Episcopal Church on Friday from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 and then again onSaturday morning at University Place PresbyterianChurch from 9:30 a.m. to 11:00. Thescriptures we read in our homes and in our Bible studies have only been in massprinting for about one quarter of the Christian church’s history. The scriptures we have are indeed a preciousgift!

Gary’s visit ties in beautifullywith our emphasis on our GODailyreadings. I want to encourage you tokeep on reading the daily texts as best you can, as they are the source of ourunderstanding of the Living Word in Christ. Recently in a Bible study, I inquired about the member’s spiritualpractices in their devotions. Manyindicated they were reading many good devotionals written by well-knownauthors. Although it is good thatspiritual reading is getting read, I made the comparison that readingdevotionals from another person’s insights are like eating a Big Mac, fries andshake. They taste good and fill you upbut it’s not the type of meal that you want to make as your steady diet becauseyou are loading up on spiritual polyunsaturated fats and carbs. In order to be healthy, we need to eat thebasic and organic meats and fresh vegetables from which the Big Macs strive toimitate. What are the organic meats andfresh vegetables I am talking about? TheBible. Devotionals taste spiritual andhave spiritual aspects but the Bible is the real deal the devotional texts aretalking about. If you’ve let yourGODaily readings slip or lapse, it’s okay! Just pick up again and start anew.

Finally, this Wednesday night we arehosting our annual Thanksgiving Eve worship service at 7:00 p.m. in thesanctuary. The focus of the evening ison Gratitude and promises to be a special evening of worship. Come and experiencegratitude this Wednesday night! Communion, the ultimate Thanksgiving Dinner, will be served.

Remember who you are (you are achild of God!). Pray hard. Read theScriptures daily. Be the hands and feetof Jesus Christ in our broken and hurting world. I am

Yourpastor and friend,

Patrick

The Message: Investing in God's Legacy Part III: God's Hand is Victorious!

2011-11-17T13:19:00.001-05:00

Sermon: Investing in God’s Legacy: Part III - God’sHand is Victorious

Scripture: Judges 4:1-7

Preacher: Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: University Place Presbyterian Church

Occasion: Commitment Sunday

Date: November 13, 2011

Once upon a time, there were eleven people whohad to be rescued from a burning building’s rooftop. A helicopter swooped in and tossed down arope for them to grab onto. So therethey were hanging on a rope under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. Theproblem was that the rope was not strong enough to carry all of them so theyhad to quickly decide which one would have to let go so the others couldsurvive. They kept arguing with eachother as to who should let go until the woman yelled at the men and told themto listen to her. She said that shewould voluntarily let go of the rope, because, as a woman, she was used togiving up everything for her husband and kids, or for men in general, and wasused to always making sacrifices with very little in return.   As soon as shefinished her speech, all the men started clapping…

Friends, today our story is about one of thegreat heroines of the Bible and one of only four prophetesses in the OldTestament. It’s the Story of Deborah whois both a judge and a prophet for the people; indeed, she is the only judge tobe considered be a prophet. In order tobest understand our text this morning, I would encourage you to go home andread Judges 4 and 5 together in one sitting as they tell the Story of Deborahin two different ways. Chapter 4describes it in a narrative format. Chapter 5, also known as the Song of Deborah, is written as a poem,which according to many scholars, is one of the oldest pieces of Old Testamentdiscovered.

Today we are reading only the first sevenverses, which is frustrating because it feels so tempting to read the entirechapter. So we need to see what thesebrief verses tell us. For centuries,people wanted to look at this text and make the highlight that this is thefirst time God calls out a woman to lead the people. This is very true and what a strong woman Godcalled indeed!

But this isn’t thepoint of the Story. The Story, though itdescribes Deborah, is a Story of God’s promise to make good on promises. It’s a Story that we have to wait until weget home to finish reading to see how it ends but the Story is not aboutDeborah’s success as judge. It’s a Storyabout the amazing character of God and how He will use surprises to accomplishthe work of the Kingdom. Turn in yourBible to Judges 4:1-7.

Judges 4:1-7

AfterEhud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD. So theLORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor.The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim. Becausehe had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites fortwenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.

Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, wasleading Israel at that time. She held court under the Palm of Deborah betweenRamah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites came to herto have their disputes decided. She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedeshin Naphtali and said to him, “The LORD, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go,take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead the way toMount Tabor. I will lure Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, with hischariots and his troops to the Kishon River and give him into your hands.’ [1]

Today’s Story is about how God’s provision forthe people comes from unexpected places. We will note this by looking at the Story’s characters; three of whichare named and the fourth is subtly pulled into the Story itself. First there is God. Next there is Deborah. Then there is Barak. Finally, there is you and me.

What do we know about God thus far? To begin with, God is a God ofsurprises. How so?

Well, God chooses nobodies (the looselyconfederated tribes of Hebrews) to become somebody’s (the chosen people ofIsrael). We also see how God will use aperson who is on the lowest rung of the social ladder in the 11^thcentury before Christ, a woman, and call her to lead both men and a nation. Third, God surprises us in that not only doesHe tell general Barak to go fight a far superior force but then God has theaudacity to tell the Israelites to give up the high ground, which any armycommander would never do, and meet the enemy on the level playing field withhis 900 chariots.

What else do we know about God at thispoint? Just as God heard the people’scry in Egypt and so sent Moses to lead the people out to victory, so God onceagain hears the peoples’ cry for deliverance and sends them another Moses-likefigure in Deborah who is both a prophet as well as commander of the people; Godhears people’s pain and needs.

Third, we learn that God will ask us tosometimes wait in the uncomfortable and scary-not-yet trusting that the futureis held in God’s hands.

Finally, we learn that no matter all that Goddoes to help the Israelites, the Israelites had to put flesh and movement totheir faith and step out to where God was calling them.

So what do we know about Deborah? We learn several things about this incrediblewoman. She was a judge, a prophetess, awife, a general, and a poet. We knowthat Deborah was driven by her deep desire to please God. She knew the plight of the people. Deborah knew of the hardships of livingtwenty years under the warring fist of a neighboring country and felt compelledby God to do something about it. We alsoknow that Deborah lived from her sense of call. God uniquely gifted her to be a legal mediator as well as a fieldgeneral. Her gifts coincided andinterlaced with the people of Israel’s needs and this is what makes up acall.

Furthermore, we know that Deborah put feet toher faith, or as the old story goes about a little girl who is frightened andruns up to her mommy and cries, “Mommy I’m scared!” The mom replies, “It’s okay honey. I’m here and I love you. What is wrong?” The little girl looks through her tearstreaked eyes and say, “Mommy, I know you love me but I just needed to feelthat love with skin on. Hug me,mommy.” Deborah put skin on herfaith. She didn’t just sit under a palmtree north of Jerusalem and prognosticate and spout wisdom to the people whocame to her; no, she spoke and she acted upon what she spoke. She put into practice what she believed. She put skin on her words and proved herfaith!

Lastly, we get to know a little bit aboutDeborah by virtue of her name and what people called her. Her name literally means ‘bee’. A bee is fast, decisive, has a stinger, and pollinatesfor future flowers. She is also describedas ‘wife of Lappidoth,’ which in a word play in Hebrew translates, “Deborah isa fiery woman.” We also note in Judges5:7 she is even given the title, “The Mother of Israel.” So we learn that Deborah is a lightening fastfiery woman who is beloved as the Mother of Israel.

The third character is Barak. What do we know about him? Barak is a man who lives in what today isnorthern Israel in land that is just west of the Sea of Galilee in the areas ofCana and Nazareth. We don’t know whetherBarak is a military leader or just the simple son of Abinoam who gotconscripted by Deborah the judge. All weknow is that Deborah fetched Barak from a distance of some 60 plus or minusmiles away to come down to her to get his orders. At this point in the Story, all we know aboutBarak is that his name means “lightening” and that he gets the order to raise10,000 troops from two tribes in the north and is to go and meet God on thefield or plain where Revelation’s battle of Armageddon takes place in thefuture. He is being asked to give up thehigh ground in the rocks, where chariots would have a tough go, and expose hisarmy on the open field to an enemy that had a gross technical and technologicaladvantage. You will have to read on inthe Story to see if Barak lives up to his name of Lightening. How many of you think he does? How many of you think he doesn’t? Yeah, you’re right. He doesn’t.

And this leads us to the fourth character orcharacters in the Story and that would be you and me. The beauty of scripture is that it invites usinto the Story and narrative. I love theOld Testament because the stories and characters are so real and so raw. Their rough edges have not been smoothed outand what we see is what we get. Thecharacters are described in ways that each of us can empathize with some ofthem and enter into their adventures.

Today, beloved, God is asking us to enter tothe Story both figuratively as well as physically. Today, as we think and pray about investingin our future as a congregation and as a dynamic witness to the Body of Christin this part of Pierce County, we are asked to emulate the character ofDeborah, our heroine. As we look at this woman, we are invited to ask ourselvesthese questions…

Deborah was known by her desire to pleaseGod. She was aware of the need of herpeople. She knew the hardships thecommunity faced. She understood what itwas like to have someone like King Jabin come and skim from the people the bestthey had. And she knew that in order toplease God, she would do all she needed to do to see God’s plans through.

Beloved, if someone looks at you and me, dothey see people who are in-Spirited in their desire to please God?

Deborah also lived from her sense of call whereher gifts and graces were put to work to meet the need of God and God’speople. Deborah knew the gifts andgraces she had were not for her personal benefit but that a call is when aperson realizes their gifts and graces are at the service of and for otherpeople. To keep those gifts and gracesto her self would be selfish narcissism. To use her gifts and graces for the service of God to others, wellthat’s a call.

Beloved, what are the gifts and graces youhave been blessed with by God? Whether spiritualgiftedness or financial giftedness, all of us in this room are gifted in someway. What gifts are you and I holdingback from God? Is it time invested inministry? Is it an unwillingness to letGod see you make an estimate of financial giving to the work of the Church andher ministries? Is it stinginess or isit personal conviction you think you may know better than God how to use God’smoney? How, beloved, are you using yourgifts and graces?

We learn Deborah’s name described hercharacter. How, beloved, does your name,my name, describer our character? If God had to give you a name based on yourcharacter, what would it be?

Lastly, we learned that Deborah put flesh onher faith. She didn’t just sit there sheactually did something! Her words andher actions aligned with each other. Youknow what it’s called when that happens? It’s called spiritual integrity.

Beloved, God is asking us to exhibit spiritualintegrity. God is asking us to align ourgiving in gratitude for all God has done for us with the way we live out ourfaith in the world in our discipleship, in our service and in our giving. Are we?

Desire to please God. Living from a sense of purpose and call.Putting one’s feet to faith. This iswhat investing in God’s Legacy is about. I close with a story about one of my heroines of the faith.

The town of Celebration had its fifteenthFounder’s Day celebration this weekend and it made me think back to where myfamily was fifteen years ago. We werebeginning a new church in Disney’s planned community and had just bought 2prime acres in the center of downtown to build the community’s first house ofworship. The deal was though, as soon aswe closed on the property, Disney told us we had two years to get a building up;without having more than a handful of faithful folks who dreamed of a church,there was no way I could see that happening. One night I was home from a long day of work and I sat down at thecounter in our kitchen. I was depressedand scared. If we didn’t get the money,the church property would be reverted back to the Disney Company. All our hardwork would be for naught. As I sat therelooking glum, my youngest daughter Katie, who was about 8 at the time, sat nextto me and said, “What’s wrong, Daddy?”

“Honey,” I said, “I’m afraid I can’t find thefunding for the church building. I’mafraid we’re going to lose our dream.” She patted me thoughtfully on the shoulder and said, “It’ll be allright, Daddy.” With that she wentupstairs to her room. A few minuteslater, she came and sat back down next to me. She reached up her left hand and dropped eight crumpled one-dollar billson the counter in front of me. “Takethis Daddy. This is my Christmasmoney. That’ll help won’t it?”

I broke down and wept. She wanted to please God. She gave what gifts and graces she had to aneed; she put feet and flesh to her faith. She lived into her name Katherine that means “pure.”

Beloved, if an eight year old gets it, weshould be able to as well. Let us givewith joy-full hearts. Amen!? Amen!

Patrick H.Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor& Teaching Elder

UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

8101 27thStreet West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.UPPC.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscriptsare available for the edification of members and friends of University PlacePresbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached withoutpermission. All rights reserved.

[1] New InternationalVersion (NIV).

Message: Investing in God’s Legacy: Crossing the River, Continuing the Legacy

2011-11-02T18:21:00.000-04:00

Sermon: Investingin God’s Legacy: Crossing the River, Continuing the Legacy

Scripture: Joshua 3:7-17

Preacher: Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: University PlacePresbyterian Church

Occasion: Trusteeship 2012

Date: October30, 2011

Bookends. I love bookends, asI am a book lover. Although Ienjoy a good e-Book, there is still nothing like picking up a book, sitting ina stuffed chair with a cat on your lap, a cup of coffee or tea, and reading awell-crafted story. The problemcomes when you have so many books you have no place to keep them properly. I find that I place books on anythingthat has a flat service be it the floor or on top of the shelves near theceiling. If there is unused flatspace then it’s there to be filled with books. And this is where the bookends come in handy.

There is an antique store in Olympia in the middle of downtown that isloaded with old bookends. It’s funto go inside and browse what is there as there are bookends of Santa Claus, ofanimals, of abstract art, and of historical figures. Some are modern and othersare Victorian. But all of themhave one thing in common: Theykeep a collection of books and stories together.

Turn in your Bible to Joshua 3:7-17. Today we are reading a bookend text. When we began our GODaily journey back in September, webegan with the Stories of how God called a loose group of tribes together andled them out of slavery in Egypt. Moses was their leader and the first Story we encountered was that ofMoses standing at the banks of the Red Sea with water in front and thousands ofPharaoh’s army and chariots in hot pursuit from their rear. The over 600,000 Hebrews were pressedin between the pursuing army and the water. Their doom was pretty much guaranteed until God parted thesea allowing the people to march through to safety on the other side. The army and chariots ran after theminto the dry seabed only to have the water fall in on top of them allowing theHebrews to escape. Over the nextforty years, the Bible’s way of saying ‘for that entire generation,’ this groupof people wandered in the desert under Moses’ leadership. If you will remember last week’s text,we read how Moses was atop Mt. Nebo in today’s country of Jordan and he waslooking west across the Jordan River to the Promised Land. And there on Mt. Nebo, Moses died.

Today we are picking up in the Story whereupon one ofthe few remaining people who began the Exodus at the Red Sea with Moses becomesthe peoples’ leader. Listen to theWord of God.

Joshua3:7-17

7 Andthe LORD said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of allIsrael, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell thepriests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of theJordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”

9Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the LORDyour God. 10 This is how you will know that the living God is among you andthat he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites,Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. 11 See, the ark of thecovenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. 12Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. 13And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the LORD—the Lord of all theearth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off andstand up in a heap.”

14 Sowhen the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark ofthe covenant went ahead of them. 15 Now the Jordan is at flood stage all duringharvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan andtheir feet touched the water’s edge, 16 the water from upstream stoppedflowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam inthe vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah(that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed overopposite Jericho. 17 The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of theLORD stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while allIsrael passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dryground. [i]

Mosesleading the Hebrews’ crossing the Red Sea at the beginning of their journey isone bookend. Joshua leading thepeople through and across the Jordan into the Holy Land is the otherbookend. Two similar stories thattalk about the shaping of the people. On one side, the people left as a disparate group of hungry and angry tribescalled Hebrews. On the other side,we have these Hebrews getting formed and shaped by God in the wilderness, andnow as they cross the river Jordan with Joshua, they become Israelites. Their identity is formed. Their purpose is set. Their love for God is tested, refinedand proven true because of the journey, the shared experiences, they’veundertaken together.

Howdid their shared experiences tie them together? First, shared experiences bind people through theirencouragement to one another along the way. “Yes, times are difficult but the Lord God led us throughand we made it; we can do it again if we must because we have shown that we canalready.”

Sharedexperiences help over time mold a common purpose and vision among those whoshare it. Shared experiencesdevelop a new language and new idioms that only those on the journey togetherfully realize. Mutually sharedexperiences generate trust with and for others as together each one learns heor she can count on the other one to help out when they get tired. This further generates a sense ofshared responsibility and ownership for the group. Since all of us have had these shared experiences, we knowthe cost it took to get to the other side. Each one had to shoulder a portion of the burden. Finally, shared experiences oftenfoster a community of gratitude and thankfulness. Accomplishments that have been made have come at a cost. They have been shared. Individually, the one appreciates thewhole community because without the community, the one would not have theblessings he or she would have on their own.

Ilove the image the biblical story paints in our minds. There in the middle of the river, whichat flood stage in Joshua’s time would’ve been nearly a third of a mile wide,were the priests attending to the ark of the covenant – the tangible reminderof God’s presence in the midst of the people. The ark held the two tablets of the Law God penned for Moseson Mt. Sinai. The ark was alsoknown as the Mercy Seat of the Lord,[ii]i.e. the place where God sat among the people. I picture in my mind old Joshua who has personallyexperienced all the wanderings in the desert and has witnessed first-hand themighty acts of God. I imagine it’sa time of reflection for him as he watches the many people walk in front ofhim, many of whom he doesn’t know, as they make their way to the otherside. He perhaps knew theirparents and grandparents but these faces are younger and fresher than his oldweather-beaten warrior’s face. Ashe watched this new generation of people file past and onto the banks ofCanaan’s shore there at Jericho, many thoughts most likely ran through hismind. He knew his own time with the people would be limited but he was hopingwith his whole heart that with God’s help, he could inspire, literally, toin-Spirit, the new generation as Moses had done previously. Watching the women and theirchildren deliberately make their way across the dry riverbed, watching theyoung eager warriors itching for a battle proudly puffing out their chestbefore their leader, Joshua begins to reflect and think.

“Willthey remember how they got to where they are today?”

“Willthey honor the sacrifices and expressions of faith and trust their parents andgrandparents made to get to this point?”

“OnceI’m gone, will they love the Lord God with all their heart, soul, mind andstrength and take care of each other as God has commanded?”

“Willthis new generation continue the legacy we have painstakingly built throughblood, sweat and tears? Will theyhave learned from our mistakes or will they forget and try to do it their ownway? Will they stand on ourshoulders or will they scatter, chasing their own wish dreams?”

Andfinally, we hear Joshua quietly talking to himself as the masses roll by, “Willthey build on our legacy and make it stronger or will they take what they’vebeen given and take it for granted?” Joshua knew first-hand the cost it took to get where they were. It had been hard, bloody, scary, anduncertain. It cost every familywho left Egypt something to make the trek for an entire generation across thedesert.

Iwonder if it would be similar to a founding father or mother of our country whowas young and alive in 1776 at the birth of our nation and was still alive whenour country broke into civil war a generation later. They would wonder, “Will the Union hold? Will the Constitution prevail? Will this experiment of a democraticrepublic fail or will it be a shining light to other nations?”

Todaywe are talking about legacy. As achurch, we are celebrating the legacy of saints, the holy ones claimed byJesus, who have died and now rest from their labor. Today, we celebrate the legacy of those long-time members ofthis church, who for an entire generation, have seen it grow from a SundaySchool in a tomato shed to the sprawling facility we have now. Today, we celebrate the ministeriallegacy of the service of grace the members of this congregation has incarnatedto others in the community and around the world in the name of Jesus Christ andin the power of his Holy Spirit. Today, we sit in and among those of the generation who built thiscongregation and who have built this church into what it is today. Today, beloved, we celebrate the legacyyou have built through God’s power and Spirit and in His Name. Today, we celebrate the fact that as apeople of God, we pass before His Mercy Seat in the middle of the river as wemake our way to new beginnings and fresh starts. We walk in front of His loving gaze as we scramble up on theJordan’s western banks and anxiously long to see what awaits for us over thehill. Today, my beloved, is a daythat we are invited to build upon the legacy others have invested infinancially as well as with blood, sweat, and tears to provide.

Overthe next few weeks, you will see a landscape of UPPC’s legacy along the wall ofthe main staircase. You will seewhere we have been and what we have done. You will see pictures of those who were a part of that first generationwho risked crossing the Red Sea and begin a new journey with God in this partof Tacoma. And as the landscape ofour legacy continues up the stairs, it will lead us into this room where we arebeing asked to cross the river Jordan and continue the journey - to continue building on the legacythat has already begun.

Eachof us is a trustee of what God has done through this Body of Christ calledUPPC. Each of us are required tofaithfully invest the gifts and graces we have been blessed with by God throughthe hands of those men, women and children who have gone before us. Now those men, woman, andchildren look to you and me to continue the legacy, to continue moving the ballof the Kingdom down the field until the time when the Crown of Righteousness isgiven by our Lord.

Howshall we answer them? How shall werespond to God’s call to further the Story, to learn, to live and to share thatGood News Story to a new generation? Shall we build upon it or shall we take it for granted? Shall we rest satisfied on thecoattails of the dreams of others or shall we cross the river and dream newdreams, building a new legacy for the kingdom? God will use someone to do it but the question we mustanswer is, will it be us?

Thisis the Word of the Lord. Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

University Place PresbyterianChurch

8101 27th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.uppc.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermonmanuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends ofUniversity Place Presbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed,published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[i] New International Version (NIV).

[ii] See Exodus 25.17-22.

Message: Do You Love Me Because I am Beautiful or am I Beautiful Because You Love Me?

2011-11-02T18:17:00.000-04:00

Sermon: Do You Love Me Because I Am Beautiful, Or Am I Beautiful Because You Love Me?

Scripture: Matthew22:34-36

Preacher: Dr.Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: University Place Presbyterian Church

Date: October 23, 2011

Turn in your Bible to Matthew 22:34-36. Jesus has enteredinto Jerusalem for his last Holy Week. The crowds are huge because of themandatory pilgrimage to the Holy City for Passover.

As Jesus made his way through Jerusalem that final week,he is often going toe-to-toe with the religious leaders intent on keeping thestatus quo. The problem is, Jesus is not a status-quo kind of guy. He willchallenge it every chance he can which is what he does beginning in Matthew 21.Jesus stirs the Jewish religious officials’ pudding by telling three convictingstories: one is about two sons, one is about a farm owner’s hired hands thatkill the farmer’s son, and the third is about a king that cannot get the socialand political glitterati to attend a state dinner and so fills the banquet withsocial ne’er-do-wells instead.

The Jewish religious leaders fire back with threequestions of their own in order to trip Jesus up and discredit him before thePassover crowds. First, unnamed officials ask Jesus to whom they should paytaxes, which was a question to get Jesus to identify where a person’s deepestloyalty should lie. The next set of questions comes from the Sadducees, a sectof Jews who believe in the resurrection. They were drilling Jesus on who ismarried to whom in heaven. Jesus tells them they’re missing the point entirely.And finally we come to the third question meant to trip-up Jesus. It’s aquestion brought forward by the religious fundamentalists about which of thesome 613 Jewish laws was most important. Listen to the Word of the LORD!

Matthew 22:34-46

³⁴ Hearing thatJesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. ³⁵ Oneof them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: ³⁶“Teacher,which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

³⁷ Jesus replied:“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and withall your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ Allthe Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

⁴¹ While thePharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ⁴² “What do youthink about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”

“The son of David,” theyreplied.

⁴³He said to them,“How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For hesays,

⁴⁴ “‘The Lord saidto my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies underyour feet.”’

⁴⁵If then Davidcalls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?” ⁴⁶No one could say a wordin reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions.[1]

Beloved, the focus of today’s message is this:Our love for God is measured against the love we demonstrate to those peoplearound us. Dr. Dale Bruner, New Testament Professor at Whitworth University,comments on our text today by simply saying, “Matthew 22 gives us Jesus’ concentrateddoctrine of God.”[2]And what is that particular doctrine of God Matthew reveals? It is this:

God first expressesHis love for us.[3]

We in turn express ourlove for Him.

We demonstrate our lovefor God by actively loving our neighbors.

The religiousofficials’ attempts to get Jesus to trip up on his own words ended with Jesusleaving the officials totally speechless. I’m reminded of Monty Python’s Questfor the Holy Grail when the Bridgekeeper asks King Arthur the question, “What is theair speed velocity of an unladden swallow?” The humor in the movie is caused bythe utter insipidness of the Bridgekeeper’s question followed up by KingArthur’s dry reply when the King says, “What do you mean? An African orEuropean swallow?” It totally flummoxed the Bridgekeeper. Jesus has totallyflummoxed the religious leaders. The private-school-trained Pharisees andSadducees are bested by the home-schooled-country-boy Jesus. They are bested byJesus with words of unadorned simplicity, a simplicity which is represented onour Lord’s Cross with the vertical beam reaching up toward God and thehorizontal beam reaching out in both directions to those around us. The Crossis a great reminder of this double-love command of God.

The Law of God and the words of the Prophetsof God, is a Law and are words of simplicity: Love the Lord your God with allyour heart, soul, and mind. Jesus is quoting God’s words that Moses wrote downin Deuteronomy 6:5. Every Jew would know this command as it was called the Shema. Every Jew would befamiliar with this basic Mosaic instruction given by God. Every Jew would knowthis captures the spirit of the first half of the Ten Commandments. Perhaps,just perhaps, this familiarity was the problem. Perhaps the reciting of the Shemawherethe pious Jew has memorized, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord isone. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and withall your strength,” has become rote. Maybe saying the Shema has become like theway we say the Lord’s Prayer. We are so familiar with the prayer thatoftentimes when we pray it, we merely say the words out of rote memorization.They roll off our lips without giving much thought and when we come to thegrand finale’ when we exclaim in unbridled doxology, “The Kingdom, the Powerand the Glory forever and ever!” it comes out more as a tone-deaf grunt.

In reflecting on this text, pastor Martha Greenebelieves that our text has been diluted by virtue of its own familiarity.[4] We’ve heard it so often – love God andlove neighbor…yeah, yeah, I get it. Has the power of Jesus’ words been dilutedby our taking these words for granted? Have we become immune to the power ofGodly worship and service in these words that we simply feel God will let usoff the hook any time we mess up and neglect the Law and ignore our neighbor?

I like that word ‘ignore.’ It literally means‘to be unaware of’ or ‘to totally disregard something that is already known.’[5] Jesus isn’t harping on the Phariseesbecause they don’t know the Law, the Torah; Jesus is holding them accountable,the very ones in God’s family who should know better. They are ignoring, i.e.totally disregarding, that which they already know. Professor Jeannine Brown ofBethel Seminary says, “Jesus’ greatest critique of the Pharisees is not theirdesire to keep the Torah in its smallest detail but their tendency to fallshort on obedience to its central values.”[6] And what was the central value Jesusreminded them of to shake them out of their ignorance?

Love one’s neighbor. The way it’sconstructed in Greek, loving God and loving our neighbor are held in equaltension. These are the two wall pegs upon which all the other 611 laws of theTorah hang. These are the two pegs that reflect the essence of the TenCommandments. On one hand, the Ten Commandments describe how people are to getalong with God. On the other hand, the Commandments outline how God’s peopleare to get along with each other. The central value is that in order to loveGod, in order to serve God, in order to live for God means each of us is tolove neighbor, to serve our neighbor, and to live for our neighbor.

The Pharisees were all about doing the rightthings, saying the right prayers in order to show their devotion to God. Theirproblem, which Jesus highlighted, is their utter failure to live that love outin the world. Their love of God actually got in their way of being able to lovetheir neighbor! Don’t believe me? Look at Luke’s version of this Story where headds the parable of the Good Samaritan![7]

Our own Presbyterian Confessions remind us ofthis danger. Questions 3 – 5 of the Heidelberg Catechism remind us that peoplelearn of their sin and brokenness from the Law of God and that through the Law,God demands we love Him and our neighbor. Are we able to do this on our own?No, the Catechism says, because we are prone to hate God and those around us.Bruner puts it this way: Jesus’ Double-Love Command is ultimately humanity’scondemnation.[8]In other words, we simply cannot do it ourselves. Left to ourselves, we work atplacating God to keep Him on our side and we will love our neighbors to theextent we can get something back from them. Where’s the hope in that?

The hope in the Story, beloved, is shown to uswhen Jesus poses the riddle to the religious officials when he says, “If Davidcalls the Lord “Lord” then how can the Lord be called David’s son?” In other words, didyou mean an African or European swallow? The Pharisees didn’t get it. The vitalquestion is, do we? We know the answer to Jesus’ riddle. We know that Jesus isborn of David’s lineage because God dared to become a human being. We also knowDavid calls Jesus LORD because he is at the selfsame time both David’s son andDavid’s God! It’s the whole Christmas thing when God becomes enfleshed in a manbut the man is not only pure man but pure God, too. Herein lies our hope! It’sno wonder the Pharisees were flummoxed!

The only way we are able to love God with ourheart, soul, and mind and to love our neighbor as our self is by the sheergrace of Jesus who comes to us first.

It is by the grace of Jesus that we realize wecan’t save the world but that we can meet the need of the broken ones in ourneighborhood.

It’s by the grace of Jesus that we know lovedoes have boundaries and that love for neighbor means loving them to livewithin the boundaries of God’s care and focus.

It’s by the grace of Jesus that we don’tconfuse love with giving others moral and ethical license to do whatever theywant or demand.

It’s by the grace of Jesus that we understandlove is to act as God loved which is a love that is totally different than theworld understands love. “To love the neighbor,” says theologian Douglas Hare,“does not mean to feel affection for them but to imitate God in taking theirneeds seriously.”[9]

Friends, if we had to take a test on what itmeans to love God, what would our answers be? Devotion? Prayer? Being a goodperson? Give money to the church? Attend worship? Belong to a small group Biblestudy? No, if we did all of this and more we would be a total FAIL to God. Wewould be no different from the Pharisees.

What it means is to love those God has put inour life! Not just our family and friends but “the neighbor,” even the enemy weknow or the complete stranger.

Religious officials were great at goingthrough the motions of showing God love vis-à-vis the Law, through correctworship and tithing but they failed to love God through their neglect of thosearound them everyday.

We are not talking about friendship love asthere is a specific Greek word for that and it is not used here.

We are not talking about erotic or sensuallove as there is a specific Greek word for that and it is not used here either.

We are talking about agape love. We are talkingabout a put your fork down at the Sunday dinner table, grabbing your coat andtools and heading over to someone’s house you may not know or even like andthen volitionally helping them simply because they need it. They may not haveasked for it. They may not be aware they need it. They may not even be aware ofwhat it is costing you, in fact it’s better they don’t! It’s a love that cannotnotexpress itself (Yes, I know it’s a double negative but deal with it!). Friends,we are created, we are made to love. We are created and made to love God and weare created and made to love one another. Perhaps our ability to agape love others, i.e. tolove volitionally, to love inconveniently, the go-out-of-our-way to loveanother is a way that shows we are created in the image of God.[10] Love is the character of the LordAlmighty, Maker of heaven and Earth. We show our love to God when we shareGod’s character of love that is in us with each other. If we withhold love fromothers, we are declaring to God the neighbor is not important or necessary.When we withhold love, when we fail to be active in showing love, we areexhibiting spiritual narcissism and the faithful mentality of a self-absorbedtwo-year old. May that never be! We are not called to save the world but we arecalled love those we come in contact with day in and day out.

Agape love for God and for our neighbor isthe toughest love to express because it takes effort we may not particularlywant to give. As the band, The Eagles, sang years ago in one of their songs,“Just get over it!” because that is the type of love agape-type love is!

It’s easy to love God in prayer. It’s tougherto love God when we have to drive thirty minutes and sit across the table froma homeless man who has not had a bath in four weeks and remind him that he is aperson of worth whom God loves and adores.

It’s easy to love God in our devotion instudying the Word in our small group. It’s tougher to love God when He asks usto put that Word in action in a neighborhood or part of town where we knowpeople may not like us.

It’s easy to love God by writing a check. It’stougher to love God when we tutor a child who has lice.

The sermon title today is taken from a songwritten by Rodgers and Hammerstein for Cinderella whereupon she asksthe prince, “Do you love me because you think I’m beautiful, or am I beautifulbecause you love me?” Interesting question. What if Jesus asked that questionof you and me, “Do you love me because I am beautiful, or am I beautifulbecause you love me?” What if a toothless homeless woman were to ask you andme, “Do you love me because I am beautiful, or am I beautiful because you loveme?” It’s something to think about, huh?

And all God’s people say, Amen.

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

University Place PresbyterianChurch

8101 27th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.UPPC.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermonmanuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends ofUniversity Place Presbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed,published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New International Version (NIV).

[2] Frederick Dale Bruner, Matthew.A Commentary. Vol. 2: The Churchbook, Matthew 13-28 (Grand Rapids: William B. EerdmansPublishing Company, 2007), 427.

[3] As demonstrated in the Parablesof the two sons (Mt. 21.28-32), the Tenants (Mt. 21.33-49) and mostparticularly Mt. 22.1-14 in the story of the Wedding Banquet.

[4] The Rev. Martha Greene, Jesus’Final Exam from TheChristian Century, October 9-22, 18. See http://www.religion-online.org.Accessed on 10/20/2011.

[5] Seehttp://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=ignore.

[6] Jeannine K. Brown, Commentary onthe Gospel of Matthew, Lectionary for 10/26/2008. Accessed on 10/20/11 at http://www.workingpreacher.org.

[7] See Luke 10:25-37.

[8] Bruner, 409.

[9] Douglas R.A. Hare, Matthew:Interpretation, A Bible Commentary (Nashville: Abingdon Press), 260.

[10] Bruner, 412.

The Message: Moses Asks for a Do-Over! Exodus 33.12-23

2011-10-19T16:28:00.001-04:00

Sermon: MosesAsks for a Do-Over

Scripture: Exodus 33:12-23

Preacher: Rev.Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley

Location: UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

Date: October16, 2011

Do you remember when you were a kid in school andrecess came around and you and your friends dashed out on the playground toplay? I sure do! James Riley Elementary School had this hugefield with a diamond on it and every recess, we would go play kick ball. When you are in seventh grade and are a guy,you do anything to get noticed by any of the girls. This is why it’s still embarrassing to thisday when I remember the time it was my turn to kick one fateful day. I lined up ready for the pitcher to roll theball to me. It was a lame roll as it approachedme – not fast and direct. I was tryingto impress Bunny Barker and Cathy Goldstein and was just a bit tooanxious. I started running toward theball but my feet got out of rhythm. Iwent to kick but started too soon and missed the ball completely! The momentum of my leg swinging up helpedcatapult my body into the air, forcing me to slam on my backside. The entire class exploded in laughter, eventhe teacher, bless her heart, as I quickly got up dusting myself off. Aside from being humiliated in front of Bunnyand Cathy, I simply remember yelling out loud, “I tripped! I want a do-over! I want a do-over!”

Have you ever wanted a do-over in yourlife? Following last week’s Story fromExodus in which Aaron and the people were throwing a Golden Calf Party,violating most of the Ten Commandments that the LORD was dictating to Mosesduring that same time. Moses has sincecome down from Mt. Horeb with Joshua; they have heard the noise from the valleybelow. Moses is carrying the two stonetablets down the hill and Joshua, ever the soldier, hears the commotion andexclaims, “I hear the sounds of war!”[1] Asthey approached the camp and saw the calf made with the peoples’ gold rings andornaments they had plundered from the Egyptians, Moses grew hot with anger andsmashed the Tablets of the Covenant on the ground in disgust. We read in Exodus 32:25, “Moses saw that thepeople were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control so thatthey became a laughingstock to their enemies.”

This was not abanner day for the Hebrews. Moses is ready to strangle his brother and God isthoroughly hacked off. Today’s textcomes in the Story whereupon Moses is now headed back up to the top to see ifhe can ask for God’s mercy and intervention. He’s asking God for a do-over.

Exodus33.12-23

¹² Moses said tothe LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not letme know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and youhave found favor with me.’ ¹³If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continueto find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.”

¹⁴ The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and Iwill give you rest.”

¹⁵ Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not gowith us, do not send us up from here. ¹⁶ How will anyone know that you are pleased with me andwith your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and yourpeople from all the other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing youhave asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”

¹⁸ Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”

¹⁹ And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to passin front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. Iwill have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom Iwill have compassion. ²⁰But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

²¹ Then the LORD said, “There is a place near me where youmay stand on a rock. ²²Whenmy glory passes by, I will put you in a cleft in the rock and cover you with myhand until I have passed by. ²³Then I will remove my hand and you will see my back; but my face must notbe seen.” [2]

Moses gets ado-over. Another way we might say it isthat even after all the disobedience, after all the whining and complaining,after being made fun of by neighboring peoples, after all the idolatry andrunning amuck, after taking part in an experience that can be called The Partyof the Anti-Covenant, God hits the reboot button. The infamous Windows blue screen of death hascast its pall across the screen and no amount of hitting control-alt-deletewill clear the view. The only solutionis to perform a hard reboot where you hold the power key down until thecomputer shuts off without properly closing all your programs anddocuments. You hope to hope that yourstuff is saved but most of the time, you sign back on and you realize noteverything you had was there. Theenvironment has been altered.

Do-overs cost ussomething. We need do-overs, we need to reboot our spiritual hardware once in awhile because we have broken promise, or to use the biblical term – brokencovenant – with God. And whenever webreak the covenant, whenever we break trust with the LORD, it costs ussomething.

It may cost us oursavings from a gambling problem.

It may cost us ourrelationships with our children because we are workaholics.

It may cost us ourpersonal Christian ethics because we have longed for power and meaning fromwhat we do or produce or from the accumulation of things and stuff.

Sin and brokennessalways carries a cost, my friends, and as we see today, it’s not always easy tohumble ones self and plead for a do-over.

I try to imagine whatwas going through Moses’ mind as he dragged himself up the mountain ofHoreb. Voices of, “Stupid me for evengetting involved in this. Stupid people I’m supposed to lead. God’s going to behot over this one…breathe Moses, breathe.” This is going to be the ultimate in being sent to the principal’soffice. Moses and God have to come to anew understanding. Moses knows it. Forthe first time, the Hebrew people are finally beginning to realize they’vestepped in the mess. God knows it,too. In God’s mind, all bets, allpromises, all commitments are off. Acontract was made and the Hebrews broke the contract. The special relationship is now null andvoid. Earlier in chapter 33, God tells the people to go ahead on their journeyand I will send an angel with you but “I, for one, am surely not going with youbecause I might just kill you for your disobedience if we go on together!”[3] And then come the haunting words of Yahweh,“Now take off your ornaments and I will decide what to do with you.”[4] Professor Walter Brueggemann from my oldseminary in Atlanta says, “The abrogation of the covenant implies the terminationof Israel.”[5] Inother words, Israel’s very existence is predicated upon God’s actual Presencewith them. Remember growing up andhearing, “Just wait until your mother or father get home! We’ll decide what to do to you then!” Moses has heard this. Moses had this banging around in his head ashe made his way up the hill.

Moses truly shows histrue character once he reaches the top and enters the Lord’s Presence. Let’s look at how Moses works up to askingGod for a do-over. First, Moses takesthe initiative. He is, after all, representing the guilty people who havethumbed their nose to God. Yet it’sinteresting to see how Moses does this. Moses begins by reminding God of God’s character. He reminds God toremember His own promises that He made to the people. Moses reminds God thatthe LORD is the one who asked this stiff-necked people to the dance and not theother way around. And then God does something and if we are not careful, wemiss it.

God repents. To repentmeans to change one’s mind and go in a different direction. Moses reminds God that it was God’s idea togather this disparate, rag-tag group of tribes together and form them as apeople. Just as God has been remindingMoses and the people of the promises they have made to the LORD, so now Mosesturns the tables and holds God to the same rule. And God repents. God changes His mind. God promises to go withMoses (the ‘you’ is written in the singular in verse 14) and assures Moses ofhis personal shalom, rest.

But this isn’t goodenough for Moses. He pushes for more. God has assured Moses rest but God has not fully come around to agreeingto be with the people as a whole. Moses’idea of a do-over is not complete so Moses pleads a second time to God. Verse 14 has God declaring, “My Presence willgo with you, Moses.” Not good enough forMoses. In verse 15, Moses pushes back and tells God, “If your Presence does notgo with ALL of us, don’t bother sending us.”

Moses is demonstratingwhat it means to be a leader. He doesnot give up and he does not forget his mission. Deliverance was not just for Moses it was for the entire nation andMoses was willing to risk it all in the very Presence of the LORD. Moses pleads the case that what sets theHebrews apart is not their spiritual practices but the fact the very Presenceof God walks along with them. Not anangel. Not an act of nature. Nothingless than the visible Presence of the LORD!

God’s response? God repents a second time. For the second time, God has repented, i.e.changed God’s mind. He tells Moses, “Iwill do the very thing you ask because I am pleased with you” (vs. 17). Now Moses is getting somewhere! God’s words are as much a statement of lovefor them as it is a promise to journey with them. For the Hebrews, “to bepleased with something” doesn’t mean what it does for us in that “everything’sokay.” God is literally telling Moses, “I am pleased, i.e. I am gracing you, Iam holding you as something precious and beautiful.”

Beloved, noticesomething very clearly at this point: God cannot help but love the people the LORD has chosen as His own. Even though they thumbed their noses to God,God loves them anyway and is interested in generating another covenant.

But for Moses, thereboot, the do-over, is still not complete. He goes for broke. Our Britishfriends might say that Moses has moved from being humble to being flat outcheeky! Moses wants to see the glory ofGod. Moses wants to see the veryawesome, shrouded, magisterial presence of God that is exhibited something likethat of an intense light.[6] Moses, my friends, has crossed the line. He’s gone too far. And once again, we see God’s grace-fullforbearance. We also see how now is thetime when Moses realizes that a do-over, a system reboot, has a cost.

God does not give whatMoses asks for this time. Instead, God makes four grace-full promises. First,God lets Moses see God’s goodness. Thegoodness of God is to be understood as a blessing of shalom, of peacefulness orwholeness, in the midst of the journey. The journey may not be easy, but God’s peace-full Presence through Hisgoodness will be with them.

The second unasked forpromise God makes is that the LORD will once again utter the unutterable Nameto Moses. God’s Name reveals thecharacter and essence of God and though Moses cannot see the essence of GodHimself, Moses could hear first-hand through God’s Name the very essence ofGod’s character.

The third and fourthpromises God makes is to disclose His mercy and grace upon those He deemsworthy and then actually makes visible His grace and mercy to Moses as hepassed by. Once again, God is tangiblyshowing Moses that God will stand by God’s Word. It may not be according to Moses’ liking andstandards but it is up to the LORD’s standards, which are better anyway.

Well, so what? What are we to get out of all this? What arethe costs of a do-over?

The first cost for ado-over is fidelity to Jesus. The first learning is that our inability to seeGod in our life is in direct relation to the level of fidelity we give toJesus. When we are not being true toGod, to Jesus, we are turning our backs, walking in the other way. Of course we will not see God in our life ifwe violate the love relationship we have established with Him.

The second cost we payis the cost of time in prayer. We learnabout the power of persistent, dogged prayer. Moses was relentless. He lefteverything on the field in his attempts and getting God’s attention. Kathryn Schifferdecker of Luther Seminarycomments on this passage saying, “Moses models prayer for us, prayer that isnot afraid to hold God to God’s promises, prayer that is not afraid to appealto God’s love for God’s people, even over and against God’s holiness.”[7] At the moment the LORD seemed absent, shouldhave been absent and had every right to be absent, Moses kept on knocking onheaven’s door. We learn that when we gothrough those times, when we feel God’s absence, we are to maintain our ritualpractice of going to God in prayer and worship. Even when we don’t think God is present, when we feel God is notlistening, when we think God is absent, we are reminded to return to thestructures of our spiritual practices and keep on knocking. God, as we see,will answer!

The third cost we payis the time spent in unfettered reflection. The text instructs us that, often, it’s only during those times when Godhas already passed by that all we see is the wake left by His Presence, inother words, his backside. Another wayis to say that we can often see God’s Presence in retrospect – after the LORDhas passed by. His light is too intense, the events of our life are toointense, to see the Presence but that Presence is right in front of usnevertheless. It is only in retrospectthat we see the footprints of the LORD. This is why the Jews were told over and over again, “Teach your childrento remember!”

Think about thesethings, Beloved. Where are you in this Story? Do you need to ask God for a do-over? What will it really cost you? Let it be. Amen.

PatrickH. Wrisley, D.Min.

SeniorPastor & Teaching Elder

UniversityPlace Presbyterian Church

810127th Street West
University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.UPPC.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

©2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edificationof members and friends of University Place Presbyterian Church and may not bealtered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. Allrights reserved.

[1] Exodus 32.17.

[2] New InternationalVersion (NIV).

[3] Exodus 33.2-6.

[4] Exodus 33.5.

[5] Walter Brueggemann, Commentary on Exodus, The NewInterpreter’s Bible, Volume I (Nashville: Abingdon Press,1994), 939.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Kathryn Schifferdecker,Lectionary Commentary for October 16, 2011 on Exodus 33.12-23 from http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?tab=2&alt=1. Accessed October 11, 2011.

GODaily Musings for Monday, October 9, 2011

2011-10-10T10:39:00.001-04:00

Today's scripture is: Jeremiah 36.11-26; 1 Corinthians 13; Matthew 10.5-15.

Today is now the second reading from Jeremiah after having been so long ensconced in the 2 Kings narrative. Why is our reading plan going from Kings to Jeremiah - it seems so abrupt! Think of it this way: In the New Testament, we have four gospel accounts that tell the story of Jesus. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John each have their own purpose and agenda in the writing of the Story they tell. They each speak of the same acts and experiences of Jesus but each with a different emphasis. The Old Testament does the same thing. 2 Kings is a historiography of the events of the early monarchs and rulers of Israel (to the North) and Judah (in the South). In our 2 Kings passages, King Josiah has executed reforms to restore the true worship of Yahweh. By this time, Assyria has taken he northern people of Israel captive. Once Josiah died, his sons became the new Kings of Judah and did not do right in the eyes of God. All the spiritual reforms and re/forming Josiah attempted has been left behind. We enter in Jeremiah's narrative at this point.

Jeremiah, also know as the weeping prophet, is a prophet during this time, beginning his ministry in roughly 607 BCE and lasting about fifty years. He was not what you would call the life of the party in those days and there are very few people who took him seriously, save for Baruch who was royal scribe and was acted as Jeremiah's secretary. In Jeremiah 36.1-10, we have the story how God instructs Jeremiah to write down words God is about to reveal to him. The purpose of the scrolls were to, "It may be when the house of Judah hears of all the disasters that I intend to do to them, all of them may turn from their evil ways, so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin." This word came to Jeremiah in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim's reign. In verse 9, we read it takes over twelve months for the scrolls to be written and presented to the people. By this time, the Assyrians have long been defeated and Babylon was marching in from the northern end of Palestine.

What is the response to the reading of the scrolls? All we know is two things: The people ceremonially listened in sackcloth and fasted (doing religion) but we have no clue if they actually wept and responded. History seems to prove otherwise. The other response is very negative coming from the King's court. We notice several things.

First, Jeremiah's secretary Baruch was ushered into the quarters with all the other royal scribes and was asked to read what was proclaimed at the Temple. We have the feeling the royal scribes reacted with the same non-plussed attitude as the people. Unlike Baruch, their primary loyalty was to the king and not the prophet. One of the scribes upon hearing Baruch's reading of the scrolls of Jeremiah went to the king and as we might say today, 'snitched' on Baruch and Jeremiah. The king ordered the scrolls to be confiscated and brought to him. The image in today's passage is the king is sitting in his winter palace with friends, family and guests around a large fire. The scrolls are being read to the king and "The king would cut them with a penknife and throw them into the fire...(as neither) the king, nor his servants who heard all these words, was alarmed, nor did they tear their garments (Jeremiah 36.23, 24). The King's response to the Word of God that took over a year to take down from dictation and write down were summarily disregarded by the king of Judah in what in essence was King Jehoiakim's equivalent of spiritually giving God the finger.

Now we move to one of the most ill-quoted/oft-quoted scriptures of the entire Bible: The Love Chapter in 1 Corinthians 13. This is a text that is usually read at weddings extolling the virtues of the special love a couple is to share with one another. Although the type of love expressed by Paul can and should be seen in married couple's lives, the point of the text is that it's to be exhibited by everyone.

Remember: 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14 all deal with spiritual gifts and how the Body of Christ is bound together with the One Spirit. Not all people have all the gifts. We are talking gifts of preaching, teaching, healing, tongues speaking, prophecy, and giving. Then we come to chapter 13. Here Paul is talking about the one shared gift all Christ-Followers do and should exhibit, intentional/hard working/volitional love of a person's will and heart, a.k.a. as agape. Paul is trying to get across the notion that all these other gifts are wonderful but without agape, they're worthless. It's this one gift of agape that sets the Chruch apart from Rotary or the Optimists or the Junior League. Agape-love is our reenacting the same love God has for us onto and for others. Paul then speaks in eschatological terms (i.e. of the "End Times") and says that all the other gifts God has given people in the Body of the Church will one day no longer be needed as we will be in God's Presence. We won't need prophecy in God's Presence. We won't need spiritual things explained to us when we are one day in God's Presence. We will not think in childish, self-serving paradigms when we are in God's Presence. WE will be, as Paul says, complete (better - perfect or whole). No, the only gift we will need in the Presence of God is the gift of love. It is the greatest, most complete and perfect gift all brothers and sisters share with one another.

In Matthew today, we are picking up in the story where Jesus has called out twelve specific people to be his disciples and apostles, literally - the sent ones. JEsus is giving them last minute instructions for their trip as he is beginning their training as future evangels, i.e. carriers (literally, angels) of the Message. In essence, Jesus is providing the 12 with two sets of instructions - Instructions of Purpose and Instructions of Process.

The Instruction of Purpose is 1) Go to the the Jews first, 2) proclaim the Kingdom of God is near, 3) cure, 4) raise, 5) cleanse, and 6) cast out. In our reading plan context then, we see Jesus' instructions of purpose is to go reclaim what is rightfully God's. The house of Israel (both northern Israel and southern Judah) is not King Jehoiakim's. The house of Israel is does not belong to the oncoming invasion of Babylon. The house of Israel belongs to the Lord God (insert Jesus) and he is there to personally reclaim what is His to begin with. And how will Jesus do this? Not with sword or punishment but with grace and love through healing the broken, raising the dead (both literally and figuratively) and restoring the outcasts and making them a part of the community again. Since folks didn't listen to Jeremiah and his contemporaries, God in Christ comes and handles it personally.

In verse 9, Jesus provides us with the Instructions of Process. The process is simple: Trust God to provide for your neeeds and don't dawdle. There is a lot of work to do and you will need to travel light as you move from place to place.

The Message: The Ten Commandments - Are they a yardstick of judgement or a measure of grace?

2011-10-09T21:51:00.002-04:00

Sermon:         The Ten Commandments: Are they a yardstick of judgment or a measure of grace?
Scripture:      Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
Preacher:       Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley
Location:        University Place Presbyterian Church
Date:              October 2, 2011

Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20

1 And God spoke all these words:
2 “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.
7 “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work…
12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
            18 When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance 19 and said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.”
            20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.[1]

Over the last several years, there has been a lot of hullaballoo about whether or not the Ten Commandments should be placed in or around our governmental judicial buildings. Atheists and folks who are concerned with the separation of the Church and State have fought to have the Ten Commandments totally removed from government property. Religious conservatives have fought back saying that they are the basis of all Law and have a proper place among the judicial halls. The communities that have the Commandments displayed say they have the Commandments there to remind them of the grand Judeo-Christian ethic our country was founded upon. There have been all types of court cases revolving around this issue but I want to share with you an interesting fact that is often not reported.

How many of us have watched the epic movie, The Ten Commandments, by Cecil B. DeMille? Released in the 1950’s, this almost four hour movie is the story of Moses and Exodus. Did you know that in order to generate publicity for the movie when it was released, DeMille persuaded Paramount Pictures to pay for over 4,000 granite monoliths that were placed in public squares across our country? According to author, Bruce Feiler, “One of these monuments, in Austin, Texas, became the basis for the Supreme Court decision in 2005 that allowed the Ten Commandments on public property if they had a secular purpose. A publicity stunt for The Ten Commandments became the basis of landmark U.S. law.” [2]

What a short memory we have. The Commandments were not placed in our public squares to remind us of our great Judeo-Christian heritage; on the contrary, they were placed there as a publicity stunt for Hollywood some fifty years ago! But our short memory also extends to the fact we still continue to view the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue – literally known as, “The Ten Words” by our Jewish neighbors – as something that is harsh and judgmental when that was not their original intent or purpose, never mind the fact only 14 percent of Americans can actually name all ten of them![3]

Theologian Debra Dean Murphy comments about how the Ten Commandments are routinely regarded as, “A list of disembodied rules intended to govern personal conduct ... As rules, they are thought to function primarily by restricting, constraining, hampering, (and) inhibiting.”[4] At best, many Christians see the Ten Commandments as a yardstick that is a good measure of our guilt in not being able to live up to God’s demands. At worst, Christians make the inaccurate statement that the Ten Commandments are all Old Testament “stuff” and have nothing to do with the New Testament. After all, Jesus only told us to love God and love our neighbors. Two commandments are much easier to remember than ten anyway.

What we fail to remember is the Greatest Commandment Jesus speaks about in loving God and loving neighbors comes out of a larger context of the Ten Commandments. Jesus wasn’t just making things up trying to make it easier for his thickheaded disciples to remember; no, Jesus was summarizing how the structure of our Ten Commandments is written.

In Hebrew tradition, the two tablets inscribed with the Law[5] each have a different focus. On the first tablet, there are the guidelines with how to relate with God. On the second tablet are the guidelines on how the people in the community are to relate with one another as God’s people.[6] Verses 1 - 11 remind us to worship one God alone, to do away with idols, to take a Sabbath, and demand that we not take God’s Name lightly. Verses 12-20 focus upon our neighbor relations. They address how we are to look at God’s created order, people, property and capital the way God looks at them. Hebrew scholar, Walter Brueggemann says, “The second tablet isn’t just a positive moral law concerning human relations. These commands highlight the primary covenantal point that these ‘neighbor demands’ have their warrant, impetus, and urgency in the character of God.” [7] In other words, the way we treat our neighbor, the way we encounter a stranger, declares in living Technicolor the way we treat God and our relationship with Him.

In our GODaily readings, we have recently read in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus declares, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”[8] In Romans, we find the Apostle Paul writing, “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law.”[9]

We have tended to make the Law, the Ten Commandments, into some albatross we must penitentially wear around our neck reminding how far short we fall in living up to God’s standards. My friends, this points to a second wrong interpretation we have of the Law. The Law is not a yardstick to mark out our guilt. No, the Law is God’s measure of grace for us!

Did you clearly get God’s first spoken words in verse two? God’s first words are not a command but are a declaration of what God has already done: Out of sheer love and grace for these grumbling, murmuring, whiney people, God took the initiative to lead them out of slavery into freedom and liberation. The first word in the Story today is a word of grace. It’s a word of deliverance. Grace precedes the Law and where we find one, we find the other.[10] As Murphy says, “The law given at Mt. Sinai comes as a gift, a liberating word that makes it possible for the covenant people to flourish in their life together. Where we see the keeping of the Decalogue as a way to earn God’s favor and escape God’s wrath, the biblical writers are clear that the law comes after Israel’s salvation and in response to it.”[11]   The second word God speaks is how the people are to show their love and gratitude back to the LORD.

Presbyterian Pastor and Professor of Preaching, Thomas Long, believes we can see the Ten Commandments as a description of the life that currently prevails in the kingdom of God’s liberation right now. He says, “Because the Lord is your God, you are free not to need any other gods. You are free to rest on the seventh day; you are free from the tyranny of lifeless idols; free from murder, stealing and covetousness as ways to establish yourself in the land.”[12] We might go on and add that we become free from the drive for bigger and better, free from comparing our spouses with others, free from longing what other people possess but we do not. It means a freedom to be content and at peace because salvation has already come to our door! It means letting go to the dysfunction our parents have burdened us with and honor them, give them importance, as the ones God used to give each of us life.

Liberation was an act of God’s grace and not a response to the Hebrew people’s merit. It’s as practical theologian Perry Yoder says, “Law is how the liberated, saved people of God say thank you!”[13]

Today on this World Communion Sunday, where Christians from all traditions celebrate the Lord’s Supper together, we are confronted with the work of grace that has taken place before we were born; in front of us is the Table of Jesus who has prepared it himself. Our meal is a tangible reminder that Jesus’ love and grace precede any good thing we could ever imagine doing or saying. Our way of saying “thank you” to the Christ is to continue to work at fulfilling the law in the here and now with those we know and the strangers we encounter. As we have been liberated, let our lives reflect the unshackled, unimpeded dance of grace we find in the Law, the Ten Commandments as we are strengthened and encouraged by this meal. It’s not a meal we come to with guilt but rather we come with a spirit of excitement and anticipation for what God is and will do in our lives and in the life of this congregation.   So, as we come to the Table, let’s not see the Law of God as a set of “Have to’s!” but let us see them as grateful “Want to’s!” as we seek to live a life in community with the powerful Triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit! And all of God’s people say, “Amen!”

Patrick H. Wrisley, D.Min.

Senior Pastor & Teaching Elder

University Place Presbyterian Church

8101 27th Street West

University Place, WA 98466-2716

www.UPPC.org

http://phwrisley.blogspot.com

© 2011 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of University Place Presbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed, published or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] New International Version.
[2] Bruce Feiler, Ten Secrets of the Ten Commandments, Posted: 04/ 2/10 12:22 PM ET and
accessed at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-feiler/ten-secrets-of-the-ten-co_b_522565.html on October 1, 2011.
[3] From the 10 Commandments and McDonald’s by the Kelton Research Group and the 10 Commandments Commission, September 2007. Accessed at www.homileticsonline.com.
[4] Debra Dean Murphy (Exodus 20:1-20) Law, Economy, Freedom and Community, September 30, 2008. Accessed September 26, 2011 at http://ekklesiaproject.blogspot.com/2008/09/law-economy-freedom-and-community.html.
[5] See Exodus 32.16.
[6] Walter Brueggemann, Commentary on Exodus, The New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume I (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 839.
[7] Ibid.
[8] See Matthew 5.17.
[9] See Romans 13.8.
[10] See Perry Yoder, Liberated by Law, Sojourners Magazine, September – October 1999 (Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 46). Accessed at http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&mode=printer_friendly&issue=sojo9909&article=99049 on September 25, 2011.
[11] Murphy.
[12] Thomas G. Long, Dancing the Decalogue (Ex. 20:1-17), The Christian Century, (March 7, 2006, p. 17). Accessed at http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=3333 on September 27, 2011.
[13] Yoder.

GODaily Musings for October 6, 2011

2011-10-06T12:52:00.004-04:00

Today's scriptures are 2 Kings 23.4-25, 1 Corinthians 2.1-11, Matthew 9.18-26.

The 2 Kings text is describing the ultimate in spiritual housecleaning. Josiah is getting his reforms into high gear now that he has received assurance from an obscure woman prophetess, Huldah, assuring Josiah that God has heard his prayers and has seen his heart and will allow his people to live in peace. Chapter 23 goes into great detail how the King personally took the role of a priestly-king in that Josiah stood at the Temple and read from the Book of the Law in the hearing of all the people. Josiah then recommits himself - and thus the people - to a new covenant with Yahweh. What is next is the description of the strategic destruction of the pagan, idolatrous places of worship and sacrifice.

When reading this story, it helps to picture Jerusalem. If you are outside Jerusalem by a mile or so from the south (the Temple to your north) you see the following: In front of you is the marble Temple, housing the Holy of Holies. You see the wall surrounding the city on the hill. On the front side of the wall, you notice a sharp drop off from the wall into an area that has been used as a trash dump ever since the city was established. In verse 10, Josiah, "Defiled Topheth which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, so that no one would make a son or daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech." Ben-Hinnom was later translated in Greek as Gehenna, or commonly referred to by Christians as "Hell." As you look directly at the fires of Ben-Hinnom, your gaze moves to the right and to the hill opposite of Jerusalem, i.e. to the east. Today we call it the Mount of Olives. The area between these two hills is called the Kidron Valley and as one ascends from the valley to the top of the Mount of Olives, one goes through an ancient graveyard and burial site. It has existed since the time of 2 Kings and is the same graveyard Jesus descends the Mount of Olives through during his Triumphal entry into Jerusalem. What is particularly interesting is the reinstitution of the Passover described in verses 21, 22. What was commanded by God when the people left Egypt as slaves to be a remembrance so all future generations would know "That I am Your God and you are my people" has been totally lost since the time of the Judges of Israel. Even great King David and his heirs didn't follow it.

Paul in the 1 Corinthians text is moving from Table Manners with respect to the Lord's Supper to spiritual giftedness. In fact, the next three chapters in 1 Corinthians deal with the use of and understanding of spiritual gifts. Whereas 2 Kings has the massive destruction of all the idols and demolition of 'gods' the people would go to from fertility in the bedroom to garden and to sooth-sayers who would give information on the future, Paul is wanting the Corinthians to let go of their gods and stuff as well. Paul has been addressing issues of idol worship in Corinthians as well and one gets the feelings he is now telling the people, You don't need an idol for wisdom and utterance - you've got the Holy Spirit. You don't need another god for healing - you've got the Holy Spirit. You don't need yet a third god to be a prophet or hear prophetic utterances and neither do you need to go to yet another idolized god to speak in strange languages - you've got the Holy Spirit! It's the same Spirit that unifies all followers of Jesus! In other words, we do not need a panoply of gods to get a variety of needs met; on the contrary, there is one God who is the giver of the Holy Spirit which binds the church, the Body, together. Furthermore, these are not talents or favors handed out by various gods because of what you have done to honor them at your homemade altars; on the contrary, these are gifts - free presents! - not earned - by God through the Holy Spirit for the sake of not just the gift-bearer or receiver but for the entire community!

In Matthew's gospel, we read a story that is also repeated in Mark 5.21 ff (in much more detail). The literary form of the text is called an inculcation, i.e. one story sandwiched between another one. For example,

Leader of synagogue with sick daughter - Vss 9.18-19

Interruption from the woman with the flow of blood - Vss. 20 - 22

Jesus heals synagogue leader's daughter - Vss. 23 - 26

The effect of this literary technique is that it causes the reader to pause and think, "Why is there an interruption to the flow with this bleeding woman when a little girl's life is at stake?" Immediately we are confronted with the WHO Jesus came to redeem! It's not for the pure, virginal daughter of the pious religious leader but also for the impure, ostracized woman that risks her life to push through a crowd and touch the hem of his garment. What's important is that in both instances it is faith that these characters have in common and faith is what God responds to regardless of one's spiritual state.

Pretty cool, eh?

GODaily Musings for Tuesday, October 4, 2011

2011-10-04T12:57:00.001-04:00

Today's readings come from 2 Kings 22.1-13, 1 Corinthians 11.2, 17-22, and Matthew 9.1-8. Our Hebrew scripture relates how some sixty years have passed between the blessed King of Judah, Hezekiah's death and the brutal and sacrilegious leadership of his son and grandson. The King's narrative now turns its attention to another religious reformer, Josiah, Hezekiah's great-grandson. Manasseh and Amon were two kings who let the worship of the LORD go down the drain. They reintroduced the pagan fertility religions and spiritually acquiesced to the whims of the current culture or neighboring countries. The Temple of God that Hezekiah had worked so hard to rebuild was sidelined. We read immediately, as in the manner of the style of authorship of 1 and 2 Kings, Josiah did was was right in the eyes of the Lord (cc: what it says about Manasseh and Amon, e.g.) and did not turn to the right or left. In other words, he was committed to following the precepts of the Law. The first thing Josiah does is undertake a renovation program. He sends a messenger to the Temple's priest, Hilkiah, and ask that the Temple funds be liquidated and given to the the Temple attendants for the purpose of rebuilding and/or restoring the Temple. What is amazing is that the money was disbursed without "an accounting" because the Temple attendants were expected to deal honestly in their construction work and costs. Imagine that principle working in today's world!

While this is going on, priest Hilkiah goes rooting around the Temple ruins and discovers a scroll of the Law that had been hidden, presumably to be kept safe during the years when Manasseh and Amon were in power. He brings this to King Josiah's attention and Josiah then establishes the Law to its proper place in the lives of the people. Josiah also renews a covenant between God and the people.

In Corinthians, Paul continues his discussion on how the church family is to get along and behave since the Corinthians just don't seem to get it. His attention is now turning towards worship. It appears the community has misinterpreted the meaning of the Lord's Supper and old habits were creeping into the Body. We get the notion that in today's Story the church began to sift itself out into cliques with the wealthy gathering for lunch on this side and the more poor members on that side. Whereas the Body was to share in common and see each other as mutual sisters and brothers in the faith, the image of the Corinthian fellowship is the economic status seems to be guiding how the church ordered itself out. On one hand, the wealthy members not only didn't understand what the Lord's Supper is, which Paul in the next two day's readings will outline, but they turned it into a time of selfish revelry - eating, drinking and carrying on while the more poor members of the church had nothing. So two problems are highlighted in this text: A misunderstanding of the Lord's Supper and the continuing divisions among the people in the fellowship (whereas before he talked about grumbling against each other, now Paul is talking economic status).

Our Gospel Story has Jesus returning from the southeastern side of the Sea of Galilee and coming to his adopted home town of Capernaum. Although not explicitly indicated, one can surmise he is back in Simon Peter's house (see Mat. 8..14-15) as that seems to be the base of his operations in that seaport town. What's interesting is we have a Story about a healing where friends bring a crippled man on a carrier in order for Jesus to heal him. Jesus, seeing the faith of the crippled man's friends, tells him, "Take heart, son, your sins are forgiven."

My first reaction to this Story is that we have no record of a 'sinner's prayer' uttered by the paralytic. We have no record of anything that indicates he believed Jesus and that in reality, he is a passive recipient of Grace. What we do see is the faith of the paralytic's friends who loved the man enough to bring him to Jesus. When Jesus saw the faith of these friends, he was overwhelmed to initiate the dynamic delivery of grace to a person who may or may not have really wanted it to begin with. After all, what was he going to do? Get up and fight off his well-meaning friends who picked up the carrier and took him to Peter's house?

The second reaction I have is that the way we are shown time and again how the 'peanut gallery' in the Story - the foils and other characters that move the Story along, continue to major in minors and minor in the majors. Jesus has just healed a paralytic! Wow! That is incredible news! What a demonstration of God's powerful grace and revelation! Sadly though, the religious fundamentalists couldn't focus on the demonstrated power and grace of the Lord God; all they experienced is what their narrow view of the world allowed them to experience: Jesus had the audacity to forgive sins and only Yahweh could do that! The religious officials were concerned with the method and manner Jesus acted. They were concerned with process. Jesus could care less about process when it comes to grace's exhibition - he's interested in the result. So, Jesus tells them, "Fine. If you think it's easier for me to tell this guy to get up and go home than it is to forgive his sins, so be it! Brother, get up and go one home!" Jesus understood that the religious officials were touting their grand religiosity and respect to Yahweh but Jesus also knew that if he simply forgave the man's sins, who could really say they were forgiven or not? So to prove that 1) he has authority to forgive sins, and 2) has the power to enact that authority and make it real, he tells the man to get on up and move it on it.