SCRIPTURE: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21
TEXT: 20So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. THEME: Christ in us enables us to create in new ways. INTRODUCTION Our world used to be a tricycle. Riding around as fast as we could pedal. Until we got a bicycle with training wheels. Faster speed and yet ridged turns that slowed us down. With practice we master balancing on our own, the training wheels came off and all kind of possibilities became available to us as we begin to lean into turns and exceed speed and distances previously unknown. The old is past and we were new creations. Paul sees this progression of the community of faith. We start off by beloving, taking what we believe about God and Jesus and applying this in loving actions with those around us. We imitate Jesus’ game plan of how to live the Commandments with gentleness, kindness, grace and endurance, drawing those around us towards God. Then we can begin to imagine what the world could be like, in our communities, in our nation and between nations. We imagine, justice, equity, harmony, sharing, respect and an enrichment from everybody’s culture and backgrounds. There is a transformation that takes place inside of us that gives us wheels for mountain biking, for cross county rides, for cruises to the mall with friends. Not to mention romance on a bicycle built for two. We can’t go back to the limitations of a tricycle. We are new. SCRIPTURE We no longer see ourselves from a human point of view, but what we know about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit enables us to see each other from the perspective of God. We are good, redeemable, loved, and a valued part of God’s People. This perspective gives us a new way to live with God and others. We don’t have to reach for past glories but are able to build on our cherished foundations for something new. Remember how we thought for each sin we had to make a sacrifice or ask for forgiveness to make it go away. We don’t have to do that anymore with God or with Jesus because their love for us supersedes our trying to make amends. If we as parents, can do this for our children, certainly God, as our heavenly parent does this for us. Not counting our trespasses against us, we can get out of that cycle and begin to imagine a new reconciliation based on what love can do. Reconciliation not in the way we balance our check book with checks and balances, debts and funds, but a drawing us into God, because God loves us. Our lives are lived informed by God’s love for us in; our families, our work, our play and even in how we practice our faith. Compelling, real, caring, kind, and welcoming. Imagine if we can be this in our homes, in our church, in our community, in our work and as a people. This is a mission of reconciliation of which we are called as Ambassadors for Christ. APPLICATION Our old perspective came from the Law of Moses and obeying the Commandments. These were the rule of the games. We played a game of not trying to break the rules in fear of punishments. Jesus gives us the Game Plan of living within the will of God, with grace and freedom. How does our perspective of faith help us to create something new? All of the teams in March Madness play by the same Basketball rules but each team has their own game plan on defense, speed, offense, transition, and rhythm. We all do things differently according to our talent, skill, teammates, help and resources. Those who do the best are cohesive, imitate the best moves, and are imaginative. Building on the way the game has been played in the past, they create something new. It is very rare for a team to three peat, so every team has a chance to win. Irish poet, John O’Donohue says we are all artist, involved in the construction of our world. We are always shaping and building it. Everyone has imagination, and when Christ is in us, it is transformative. Being loved, valued, cared for, forgiven and accepted informs our imagination. Then living becomes a creative act of growing and moving forward in Christ and community. This is where I think our church is exceptional, in thinking about what God might be calling us to do, and then to being willing to take action in those directions. As we begin moving on the idea of housing units on the Mission Ground, we said that God would provide for us if this is what God wants us to do. So, we could change our project according to where we would find funding, and that we would keep on going with this project until God closed the door. So far God continues to open doors for us towards providing affordable rental units for those born and raised on Maui wanting to raise their families here. The other thing O’Donohue said about our creative lives, is that it is a calling. The Greek work for ‘calling’ finds its root in the word for “beauty”. We are called to be in the presence of beauty. This is not passive, but calls us to be changed from what has harden us or wounded, to have a heart of creativity. CONCLUSION Paul’s letters to the church are an encouragement for the church to take action and create something new. With Christ in us a transformation takes place as we see glimpses of how God sees the world and us as good. Taking what we learn about God’s love for us and Jesus’ ministry among us, to take action to love others in being patient, forgiving, gracious and kind. What Jesus models for us in living in relationship with God, gives us freedom to be creative and inventive in our relationship with God and others. God gives us the capacity to imagine a better world than the one we are living and we like an artist we have a chance to create something better. This call, is to be partners in life with God, as co-creators and stewards of something new.
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SCRIPTURE: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13
TEXT: 13No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it. THEME: Building something new on the foundation of the glories of the past. INTRODUCTION The sermons for the Sundays before Easter are linked with different Ideas of “Living Belief’. We started with, not believing, but taking what we discover about Jesus and beloving this in the relationships around us. Next, we looked at how we can be imitators of the Apostle Paul who is trying to live as Jesus and of others who embrace that sense of love, grace, and kindness in Jesus. This week, Paul’s epistle is helping the church in Corinth imagine something more than their past with Moses and to imagine their future in Jesus. SCRIPTURE Paul begins this portion of the letter reminding the Corinthians that we are a family in God, with a common inheritance, God is with us and will help us through whatever we are going through. Taking our cue from Paul’s letter to the Philippians, from last week, Paul is encouraging us to, Copy good things as our impersonation of Jesus. Adding on to this, Paul also wants us to be selfless. Everyone has the same opportunity to be formed into the People of God in the wilderness, following Moses. But some were unable to overcome their selfishness, and could not find it in themselves to trust God. Over and beyond God, they figured out what was best for themselves. If salvation is defined as being in a relationship with God, then their selfish pursuits caused them to perish. Paul concludes this portion of the letter by reminding us that God is with us and will help us through whatever we are going through. Idolatry is selfishness, trying to work an angle so we can get to do what we want, regardless of how it affects others. Our self-will denigrates others as less than the image of God, treating our neighbor poorly, enslaving them, beating them, holding our prejudice against them and not honoring them with a mutual respect. We betray our covenants with each other for our ambition. And when we can’t get what we want, we complain and grumble, eroding thankfulness, appreciation and praise in our lives. When we turn towards God and God’s way, we can see how Jesus has become our new Moses. The escaped slaves turned towards God as they cross through the waters of the Red Seas as we do at Baptism. We leave our self-centered lives behind as we breathe deeply from God. Baptism signals our new direction, turned towards God. Under the constant cloud of the Holy Spirit we are lead, protected, shaded, and helped. In God is life, spiritual life with living water, nourished on the broken body of Christ. So, when it comes to testing, or trials, or suffering in our world, this God who loves us, journeys with us, never abandons us, and is there to help, lead, provide, strengthen, guide, comfort and accomplish God good work in us. APPLICATION Paul wants us to imagine something more than the wilderness and the law. Jesus gives us an example of how to live beyond the payment of sin and debt reconciliation (So don’t only focus on the cross). Jesus lives what the law was unable to accomplish; a provocative relationship with God that enables us to live a compelling life that people want to copy. A life where we are not escaping suffering, but learning, with God’s help, to handle pain and sorrow in us, so we can help others with understanding and compassion to bring relief from their suffering. (Yesterday I was listened to Krista Tippit’s interview of the Author of Because of Winn-Dixie and The Tale of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo. In speaking to an assembly of Children she talked about how difficult her early childhood was. A girl from the audience commented that she survived and so she could too,) How does what we learn about suffering help us to imagine a different kind of church? Jeffery Acido’s article in the Friend had prophetic words for the church. It is more important for us to live our faith than to regulate it. What changes would we have to make in our worship services to be more engaging for Youth? Are we willing to sit next to the homeless person who has come in just to sit? What theological understanding do we need, to encompass all, as brothers and sisters in the family of God, no matter what their sexual orientation or gender identity may be. Then maybe what we will find in the scriptures is not laws to obey but an openness for us to live in community with each other. People are looking to be loved, accepted and part of a community where they can feel that they belong. This is where we are headed. CONCLUSION If you can imagine it, you can be it. In Star Trek, when Captain Kirk entered the bridge, the doors automatically opened up to him. When people asked how did they do this. They answered. There are two guys, one on each door that pull the doors open and shut, then we add the sound effects. But did you know that this led to someone inventing automatic doors that would open and close without two guys on each side. Same thing with the communicator Kirk used to communicate with the Enterprise. It was the inspiration for a flip phone. And isn’t that what Elizabeth Homes creating her fraud around, a simple blood test that would give a complete medical profile of a person’s health conditions like Bone’s tricorder reader? Moses wandering around the desert with the escaped slaves had the Ten Commandments on two stone tables but they had no concept of temple worship. Caiaphas the High Priest in Jesus’ day had the temple and a system of fund raising and sacrifices as atonements but had no concept of the church, The Catholic Church had doctrine, regulated and organized the church but had no concept of the Reformation Churches, and who back then could have imagined a Billy Graham Crusade, or Rick Warren’s Saddle Back church or a church in the middle of the pacific worshiping in a roman gothic building made out of stones from the cane field? Our small membership congregation has no business thinking that we could build 48 rental units on our 2.5-acre piece of property, without using any of our money. But because God caused us to imagine it, this is where we are today. I talked with Andy Bunn, the Executive Director of the Hawaii Conference Foundation, last week about his article in the Friend about our church’s project. He said we are the Only church that is doing something like this. Churches are only now beginning to have some of these kind of conversations about what it means to be the church with their properties in their community. They have been maintaining what they have, and been reaching for a past glory of their church and stopped imagining. We need to take those signs of God’s activity with us in the past and match them with what we see God doing today and begin to imagine what God is calling our church to be, so we can be it in the future. SCRIPTURE:
TEXT: THEME: INTRODUCTION The sermon series for Lent is based on two things: Living our Belief and building on our foundation of faith. It seems that the Lenten Lectionary part from the Epistles (The Lectionary selects readings from the OT, Wisdom, Gospel, and Epistles for each Sunday) seem to be not just about believing but on living what we believe about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Letting these influences shape our lives and what we do in very practical ways. Paul is a living example of what he preaches, as from a prison cell he writes this encouragement to the church in Philippi. He is not trying to replicate the Jewish religion in Philippi, but building upon that foundation, to follow God into creating something new, the community of the church, citizen of heaven. SCRIPTURE We were always entertained by those who can take on the likeness, mannerisms and voices of famous people. There were variety shows on TV where impersonator would do their act imitating celebrities. Rich Little, Sammy Davis Jr. and Jim Carrey would do their impressions. Much like how Saturday Night Live has their actors do impression of political leaders for their skits. They would take on a few nuances, voice pattering and contort their faces to look like them but they could never replicate or replace the person they were impersonating. They could never get rid their own persona completely. That being said I don’t think what Paul wants us to be our copies of himself. But to take his example, living faithfully and to find encouragement for us to live our belief in our lives, even if causes sorrow and pain. At the Aha Pae’aina, a colleague listen carefully to what was being expressed, about a motion, then skillfully added a friendly amendment to it to make it more palatable for most people to accept. That is something imitation worthy. There are couples who always treat each other with respect in the way they address each other. You can see the kindness they had for each other with their manners and gentle tone. Something else imitation worthy. It is easier for us to do this when we realize God’s love for us. Maybe shifting from seeing human kind as problematic, to seeing human kind as good, as a blessing, just as God pronounces at creation. And then to see God’s enduring, caring, long suffering love for us. God’s love rejoices, embraces, heals, and desires the very best for us all along the way. God never abandons us, never gives up on us, always hopes and is not there to punish us (although there are consequences to our actions good and bad). We have the example of Jesus recorded in the Gospels to model how to treat each other with grace, love, kindness, revealing truth and drawing us to God. This kind of love is imitation worthy. There is a retired pastor, who is gifted in taking complicated theological ideas and relates them in sermons in plain and practical applications. Illuminating the truth of God for the everyday person. It takes meditation, wisdom, empathy and deep theological study (although he would never admit it). This is imitation worthy. In light of so much evil in our world. And now with the invasion of Russia into Ukraine, as details continue to unfold, stories of valor, courage, sacrifice, endurance and triumph over a formidable evil, from average, everyday people are imitation worthy. So, what if we have to pay more for gas, right?! It is easy to give up on some people. Especially the ‘enemies of the cross’ who persecute Christians, who chose not to follow Jesus’ way. To think that evil has consumed them so completely that there is nothing redeemable in them. But former Senator John Lewis’ words remind us, that through the nonviolent protests, the degrading treatment he had receive, the inequity just because his ancestry is different from the dominant culture, and through the beatings, the incarcerations, and personal sufferings he endured, he says, “we never give up on anyone”. This is imitation worthy. As Paul did so following Christ’s example, and John Lewis did so following Paul’s example. We too can try to imitate them. As citizens of heaven, we take those good examples and adapt them in our living. We create our own versions of God’s wisdom, and Christ’s love with our lives and persona, personal style and flare. Okay I am going to say it again, “this is what our Christian lives look like when we focus on Resurrection Living, instead of focusing on the Cross only for our salvation.:” Our Salvation comes from living in relationship with God the creator of Heaven, Jesus the ruler of all and with the help of the Holy Spirit loving each other. Inspiration from the resurrection is imitation worthy. APPLICATION Jesus’ death on the cross can be seen by some as a huge failure to his movement. Jesus’ death on the cross has become a generous transaction of debt and payment. But what if we see Jesus’ death on the cross as Jesus’ commitment not to back down on loving us, on teaching us, on revealing to us, and never giving up on loving us. How does the suffering shame of the cross figure into our relationship as citizens of Heaven? Here is something interesting to consider from a different tradition. Humans in different cultures, setting, and practices all wrestle with the same problems of our humanity and we all get partial glimpses of glory. Zen master Thich Nat Hanh says, “When you are mindful, you can recognize, embrace, and handle the pain, the sorrow in you and around you, to bring you relief.” “If you continue with concentration and insight, you’ll be able to transform the suffering inside and help transform the suffering around you.” He says this is a miracle, because “you are not trying to run away from suffering anymore, and you know how to make use of suffering in order to build peace and happiness.” In our Christian tradition we don’t have to do all of this work by ourselves, because God is there to guide us and give us insight as well as the example of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit that gives us more self-control than we would muster on our own. This is the interesting point he makes as he talks about the Kingdom of God and about how we are to live today as citizens of heaven: “Yeah, because I could not like to go to a place where there is no suffering. I could not like to send my children to a place where there is no suffering, because in such a place they have no ways to learn how to be understanding and compassionate. And the Kingdom of God is a place where there is understanding and compassion; and therefore, suffering should exist.” If this is true, then living our belief makes us citizens of Heaven and we are living in the Kingdom of God now. CONCLUSION Living our belief has a practical aspect of not trying to escape from the suffering in our world, but having the tools, resources, relationships and ability to have understanding and compassion to inform our living with those around us. We have good examples for us to follow in God’s love for us, in Christ’s love for us, in the examples of the Saints like Paul and the local ones who live among us. Then our Christian life become one we can live, unique to us, built on the eclectic imitating of those who have come before us and new twist that we add on, building upon those foundations of faith. SCRIPTURE: Romans 10:8b-13
TEXT: THEME: INTRODUCTION When we believe that God loves us, this relationship saves us. Christianity is not about right belief, as much as it is about change of heart, because of a loving God that transforms our lives and our relationships. SCRIPTURE In Romans 10, the Apostle Paul says, “Confess with your lips and believe in your heart.” This passage is not about what you must do to be saved. This passage is not about what we have to do first, confessing with our lips or believing with our hearts. It is about moving away from salvation formulas into living in relationship with God through Christ loving us and God raising him from the dead. When this becomes the way, we understand our relationship with God then this informs the way we live with others. We live what we believe. The way we live is according to what we believe to be true. If we believe that the world is flat, we will not venture very far away from the sight of land but when we take to the skies and see the curvature of the horizon and realize the roundness of the earth, as it opens us up to new lands, territories, cultures, environments and possibilities. Marcus Borg wrote this commentary on John 3:16, about” Whosoever believes in him will not perish…”: He says believe does not mean believing theological claims about Jesus, but that the word could actually be translated as ‘beloving Jesus’; giving one's heart, loyalty, fidelity, and commitment to Jesus. This is the way into new life. (Believing and Beloving) This seems to fall into place with what God has always been about, forming relationships, partnerships, covenants, agreements, built around promise, hopes and a better future with us and loving caring communities. I know a person right now who is believing as hard as they can for the ‘salvation’ of their loved one. They want their strong faith to bend the will of God towards their desired outcome. I know this is very important for the mental well-being of this parent, but God needs room to operate in the mystery of the circumstance and reveal what God is doing in this situation, in this future, in this life, and through this new reality. Paul is not talking about believing hard enough so everything will be as we want but believing in God well enough to have a relationship with God journeying with us through this broken world of ours, not making everything as we wish, but finding grace and love to live in the world as it is, with hope, love, transformation, peace and joy. APPLICATION How is our living changed when our salvation is not hinged on how hard we believe but on God loving us? God has loved us from the beginning and has never stopped loving us. Yes, there was that selfish incident in the garden where, we called God a lair and our self-pity gave way to fruit eating. There were consequences to our behavior that hurt our relationship with God, but we were not estranged from God as some describe. God has never separated God’s self from us but rather has been our parent, advocate, our helper, come to our aid, been our shelter and provider. How do we live this ‘beloving’ in our lives? Relationship with God raises all from the dead no matter where we trace our ancestral roots. What does a community made of people who are loved by God look like? This is the making of a diverse community of believers. On one side it means the Body of Christ becomes more diverse than uniformed. It opens up new expressions of faith, love and devotion. But it also means that the church has to learn to get along with people who are different from themselves. Rich and poor, Jew and Gentile. Those with deep historic roots of faith and those who are newly planted seeds. We need to be on the top of their game on being tolerant, understanding, listening, and accepting that some things are going to be done in new ways. Maybe we have to set aside some of the glories of tradition and culture for something unseen, untried, still forming that God is wanting to create in us. Now that the doors of the church are open again. We aren’t doing contract tracing or checking for vaccinations, we will still ask you to wear a mask indoors and keep your distance. But we will not be going back to a longer service. We will still be a church on Facebook and YouTube. We were beginning to do this before the pandemic, with just the sermons, but now we include our entire service online. Maybe we will be able to return to refreshments after service soon. I think this is the dynamic of our relationship with God, it is not limited to one form, or expression, but it has life and breath to be lived and find creative ways, in all cultures and communities, branches of government, businesses and in other entities, places, where people are, because God is relational. Relationships take doing the work of reconciliation: Forgiving hurt, admitting fault, acting towards reparations, making behavioral changes, changing direction from hurting to healing, from judging to listening, and from stubbornness to transformation. We don’t need to be best buddies with everyone (that’s God’s job) we just have to stop hurting each other. Sometimes the best way to do this is by keeping our distance. There are some people that we are not going to get along with, but we still can be respectful, caring, loving and generous from afar. Why put ourselves in that uncomfortable situation if we don’t have to, unless God has greater plans for this relationship. CONCLUSION This week I saw a license plate holder that read, “Defend Hawaii”, then in small letters on the top it said, “Don’t mistake Aloha for Weakness” The conclusion of a powerful love was to defend Hawaii. I would have written a different punchline: “Live Aloha” - “Don’t mistake Aloha for Weakness”, or “Aloha raised Jesus from the Dead, don’t mistake Aloha for Weakness”, Paul is encouraging us to live out our relationship with God’s self in our world, Our Christian faith is more than just believing, it is about beloving. |
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April 2024
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