SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 4:1-14, 5:8-11
TEXT: 10And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you. THEME: The Resurrected Jesus is seen in those who do good. INTRODUCTION The resurrected Jesus is not found in empty tombs, but among the living. Today from 1 Peter we will see the resurrected Jesus in the lives of those who are engaged in Good trouble. The world is good but not perfect. The world has come to be the way that it is because some have figured to that this is the way that it should be. Sometimes it is good for a few at the expense of the many. The recent stories in corporate America have been about how CEO’s have recorded huge bonuses, while the income of the average worker has hardly changed. The distribution of wealth between the few rich and many poor is disproportionate and so workers at Kaiser, coal mines and the winters at movie studios have struck for their fair share of the profits. SCRIPTURE Peter’s addresses the church as they are going through fiery ordeals, cultural conflicts, moral dilemmas and financial hardships. The community of faith acts contrary to the communities they are in for the good of all. They do not worship the prevailing gods and could jeopardize their good favor with Rome. The second part of this passage are the supports for those who follow Christ and find themselves acting counter to the culture. Be humble, cast your cares upon Jesus, be alert those who are evil and are out to get you. Know that there are Christians in other places doing the same kinds of thing you are doing and are suffering the same things. Through it all, God will restore, support, strengthen and establish you. APPLICATION How can the church be a place where burdens are cast, we find restoration, support, strength, and are established? College was a struggle, new people, new place to live, strangers all around. I was displaced, away from home. Across the street from the dorms was Holy Cross Church, one of our UCC churches. I attended services there, volunteered at the youth group and met some pretty amazing people. It was about this time that someone shared 1 Peter 5:8 with me, 8Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour.” I felt my Christian life being attacked. This passage helped me realize that the devil, evil, active forces out there were out to get me, but I could be alert, be disciplined and not get eaten. I went to another of our UCC churches and these people practically adopted me. I volunteered with their Youth Group, they invited me to dinners. I helped prepare food for their moon festival that is the first time I saw someone use the bottom of a bowl as a stone to sharpen a knife. I showed up on Saturday to help them paint the preschool. I’ve never seen someone get so much paint out of a paint brush. They were a community of faith that let me be apart of them. I then was hired by another church to help with their youth group. These three churches were all very different from each other. The people they gathered were all from the same community, no more than a few miles apart from each other but very different demographics. Each church did the work of restore, support, strengthen and establish in their own way and I am appreciative of their ministry to me while I was at each. This has been my experience at every church I have been with since. Verse 10 says Christ himself will; restore, support strengthen and establish. And Christ has, with the works of salvation, love and grace. We are products of that, and Christ in us (the resurrected Christ) has us doing the same through the community of the church. CONCLUSION We may not be the ones lining the roads in protest, but we have people in our church who are (or know someone who is). During the Mental Health Professionals who struck there were many from the church who prayed in support of them. I didn’t know that there was an Artificial Intelligence (AI) app that could take what you have written and make it “better”. It rewords sentences, fixes grammar and spelling. I was asked to write an article for our Conference's newsletter on our church’s use of the Mission Grounds with the Affordable Housing Project. I sent my draft to a friend who ran it through an AI app and sent it back to me. Smooth. It made it much easier and clearer to read but it also left out some of the quirky way I put words together. This is one of the reasons they writers in Hollywood are striking. They are afraid that they may be replaced by ‘AI’ apps. They want protection for their jobs and be compensated for their intellectual property 9the quirky way they put words together and develop characters and themes). One of the writers on strike is from Hawaii, He said that his job is safe for now because he writes for comedy and ‘AI’ can’t do comedy. I sent a prayer out for the writers, their provision during these lean times and soften hearts of the few, that would share profits with the many. Christ uses the church to restore support strengthen and establish those who are engaged in Good Trouble to make a good world better. One last note. It was when I attended one of these churches in my college days that God sharpened my call to ministry. Sitting in the congregation I thought “Small membership churches need good pastors” maybe this is what God want me to be, a good pastor to a small membership congregation. I struggled to graduate from college. I did the same in seminary, and after about 20 years I decided I must be doing what God wants me to be doing. Now I am trying to figure out if God might be saying, “stop what you have been doing, let someone else have a change and move on to the next thing.” I might have to spend more time sitting in the loving arms of a good church to find out.
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SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 3:13-22
TEXT: 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, THEME: INTRODUCTION When I first became your pastor, the scripture that was popular was from Proverbs 29:18, “Where there is no vision, the people will perish.” I was asked what my vision for Wailuku Union Church was. I said, “I don’t know, I haven’t been here long enough.” Even when I went to the Ecumenical Minister Meetings, they repeated the same passage. I didn’t think that coming up with a vision was my job. God was not speaking to me about the church. Were we going to perish? A few years later, we engaged in a process of discernment called the New Creation Initiative. We learned a few steps to discern the will of God. It included the reading of scripture, reading what the great minds of the church were writing, asking members what scriptures seem to be popping up, observing what God doing around us. As we shared and prayed with each other, we actually were able to come up with a few images of the church and what God was saying to us. SCRIPTURE It’s easy to get lost in all of the details of the passage. So one way to unpack it is for us to start at the end, with verse 21 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. From this verse we can see that there are two ways in which people try to approach salvation. The first way uses baptism to remove sin, as water removes dirt from the body. The right ritual or atoning sacrifice would win favor from an angry God. The second way is forgiveness from a loving parent God, which reconciles our relationship with God as described ‘as an appeal to God for a good conscience’. This is all that we need. Loving forgiveness is more than enough for our reconciliation with God to take place. The resurrected Jesus is seen in those who discern God’s will and are participating in God’s mission. When Jesus is seen as only sacrificing his life as a payment for our sin, it reduces our relationship with God to financial transaction of debt reconciliation. Salvation is not about being debt free with God. The goal of salvation is to be in relationship with the Creator of all things. When all we are looking for is a way for us to make things right with God, our Christianity can become selfish, self-serving and gives us a false sense of righteousness. We like a salvation that escapes death, saves ourselves, escapes the plagues of the apocalypse, but Jesus doesn’t shy away from suffering in order to bring us to God, this becomes uncomfortable for us. We like having Jesus dying on the cross as a payment of our sins but shouldn’t we be trying to follow his example. So don’t be surprised if we find ourselves suffering because we are doing what we believe God wants us to do. Now the first verse (13) makes sense, “… who will harm us if we are eager to do what is good?” Those who are evil will cause us to suffer. Those who are threatened by what we do for God because it will disturb what they have. As we discern the will of God there will be those who will push back against us, not understanding God’s mission, not wanting to change, not wanting to try something new, not wanting to use their resources in a way different from how we have used them in the past. Peter’s letter arrives to households that held slaves. We all know of the suffering that came from those who worked to abolish slavery, apartheid, racism, separatism, agism, gender-ism, sexism and other kinds of ‘ism’s’ that diminished the humanity of any person for any reason. Last week we discussed carrying the Lord’s name in vain from Exodus. It is about when we don’t behave in a way becoming of God, whom we represent. When we diminish others humanity, we are diminishing God’s image. When we move to correct that sort of behavior in our community, we are doing God’s work, but there are others who react because of a fear of a perceived loss, over the perceived good of sharing to make others whole. Then the last verse in this passage is brought to light, as Jesus is Lord, gone into heaven, at the right hand of God, ages authorities and powers subject to him. It’s not, ‘Jesus do this for me’, but me doing what Jesus wants. APPLICATION When we suffer, how do we know we are doing what God wants us to do or that we should stop what we are doing? This past week I was asked to consider being a member of our Conference’s Innovation and Engagement Missional Team. I told them that I had my own innovation and engagement project that I was working on here at Wailuku Union Church. Then I retold the story of how we got here, discerning God’s call. Coming up with our mission statement. The doors that opened and the doors that closed. The Parable of the Good Samaritan. Those born and raised on Maui given the opportunity to have an affordable place to rent to raise their families, as being the fallen traveler. Wailuku Union Church being the innkeeper in the retelling of this story. I told the story of how we sing new songs, try new things, have an environment where making mistakes is how we learn. We are small and have no business thinking about doing these kind of things, but have been at it for 20 years because we believe this is what God is calling us to do. I didn’t tell her that with each obstacle so far, we have navigated through them and we will continue until the project is complete or God tells us to stop. The fruits have been good; faithfulness, sharing, maturity, community, and love. We trust the process; God has brought new people at each stage to help us when we have needed them. We have been able to change our vision of this project as God continued to sharpen our vision. God continues to provide for our church even through the pandemic, no county fair income for several years now and rising cost. Our church community is on line and in person but it is the same congregation. We are open to learn what it will be like to be the church in the future. We are open to hear other ways to understand what being Christian is all about from an evolving theology and understanding of scripture. We are exploring how our three churches in the Wailuku Parish may be able to share our resources instead of compete against each other. God is still speaking. How about that? They asked if I’d be a resource for other churches to call. CONCLUSION The resurrected Jesus can be seen amongst those who are discerning the will of God. They are alive, changing, transforming, evolving. Discernment is what ‘an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ’ (21b), is all about. We want God to speak clearly, plainly, slowly and right away to us. But God does not (usually). God gives us enough to hang in there, a community to hold. Us in prayer as we wait, scripture for encouragement, but always answers in a timely manner. This is how we learn the rhythm of God and acquire a good conscience with God. SCRIPTURE: 1 Peter 2: 2-10
TEXT: 5like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. THEME: Stubbornly live Christ as our cornerstone but don’t be stoneheaded about it. INTRODUCTION Sometimes by the time sit down to work on the sermon; after Monday Night’s Bible study, condensing the essence of the passage into a story for preschoolers on Wednesday’s chapel time and coming up with a title for the sermon for the bulletin, I have forgotten what the title was. When I looked up the title ‘Amongst the Cornerstone’, the first word that came to mind was ‘Pa’akiki”. My slang Hawaiian translation of this word is ‘stonehead’. I have used this under my breath after a difficult conversation when the dominant culture was unsympathetic to my nonconforming ways, or When I have come up with another way of doing something but the old ways prevailed, or when my good humor, wisdom and experience was ignored for a less sensible way; “Pa’akiki” I said, under my breath, “Stonehead” I thought in fear that they would hear me, “Stubborn” that’s all there was to it. SCRIPTURE Today’s passage from 1 Peter is about taking our bearings, stubbornly from on Christ being our cornerstone. A cornerstone is place with precision, exactly where it needs to be for the rest of the building to be built. The rest of the stones are placed according to their function, shape, purpose, gifts, skill, talent, in relation to the cornerstone. At Preschool Chapel, we walked around the outside of this building looking at the different kind of stones that were used. I pointed out the cornerstone, square stones, rectangle stones, Key stone, oddly shaped stones, diverse but fit together for strength, endurance, beauty and the worship of God. Like the people who make up the church, not all of the same, but diverse, built into something strong, beautiful enduring for the worship of God. Living stones build together to form a community as a church. We all have taken the story of Christ in our own way and have adapted this story into our story. We are our own adaptation of how we live the Gospel of Christ. We are not finished (vs.2) but continue to learn, to be transformed, changed, edited, purged, built up, evolved, aged, matured, refined and created into the likeness of Christ. We take our bearings stubbornly from the cornerstone of Jesus and are creative in finding ways to build upon it in the world. Built into a spiritual house (vs. 5) of God’s people, are built into the Realm of God. APPLICATION On Easter, Mary Magdalene looked for Jesus in the tomb, but it was empty. The angel told her he is risen and to look for him amongst the living. 1 Peter’s encouragement is to see the resurrected Jesus in the lives of those who are “Pa’akiki” in living their lives connected to Christ. Measured by the cornerstone of Christ what are our lives like when Christ is our point of reference? In the middle of the cull de sac where I live, was a brass bench mark with the elevation, longitude and latitude coordinates imprinted on it. Since then, it has stolen. From this point of reference, a surveyor could find the various property lines of my neighbors, so we can all live peaceably within our boundaries. Christ as the cornerstone is the bench mark, the reference point from which our lives take their bearings. This is where this passage gets exciting because who Christ is influences who we are. Our identity is found in Christ as our cornerstone. Our relationship with God through Christ enables us to be closer to God than a priest is. We are children of God. A priest articulates a prayer, a request, a devotion, for a person to God. But as a child of God, we can go to God directly as a child does a parent. We don’t come to God to ask for favors, but we go to God for well-being, for fellowship, for insight, for presence, for comfort, for direction, to be held in loving arms. We align ourselves with God in the way we live for God, for ourselves and with our neighbors. God dwells with us. The language in this text uses the phrase” spiritual house” and “Zion”. These are places where God dwells (vs.5&6). It is interesting to note that God dwells among us. Earlier this week I was listening to a pod cast from Regent College interviewing Dr. Carmen Joy Imes where she addressed the passage from Exodus “using God’s name in vain”. The familiar interpretation of this is passage is not to use God’s name as a swear word. But it is more than that. If so, that would be in the realm of oath taking or lying, but as she looked at the Hebrew, she says that this has more to do with bearing God’s name in vain, as a representative or ambassador to the other nations. She sees, God’s name as something we carry, bearing the weight of God’s name to other nations. This theme, of caring the weight of God’s name is projected all throughout the Bible, even in First Peter. The chosen race is a mixed; made up of people from all ancestries. We are a Royal Priesthood, adopted children of God, who talk directly to God as a child does to their parent. A called People Holy because of our understanding of God and as ambassadors inviting other nations to join in. A nation not based on race, or on borders, but on our relationship with Jesus as the cornerstone of God. A Holy nation made up of many citizens from many nations called to be a people and recipients of mercy. CONCLUSION Cornerstone, made me think of those who were stoneheaded. We can get that way about what we believe about God and what it means to be a Christian. We are Pa’akiki about our belief in Jesus, the love of God for us, forgiveness, grace and the resurrected Jesus. This cornerstone of our lives is the bench mark that calls us to worship, build communities, pray for others, engages with God, grow our theology, follow Christ’s example and love others. In this day and age, theologians are looking at familiar scriptures with new eyes and discovering different ways for us to understand what God is saying through them. Like in Exodus, it is more than swearing, but how we carry God’s name that can be in vain. Our stubbornness is to follow Christ. There are some things that we thought we knew that we have to let go of in order to more fully align with Jesus’ words and example. Relationships are an important part of Christ as our Cornerstone. The practices of reconciliation; listening, forgiveness, grace, patience, self-control, compassion and caring are how we bear the name of God for all the world to see. We are not perfect by any means, but we are examples of graciousness as we live together, built as living stones into a spiritual house. Our transformed lives that make up the church and are a sign of the resurrected Christ living amongst the cornerstone. |
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April 2024
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