SCRIPTURE: Deuteronomy 34:1-12
TEXT: THEME: INTRODUCTION When Moses was born, midwives saved his life by letting him live. When his parents set him in a basket in the river, Pharaoh’s daughter drew him out of the water and raised him in the palace. Later when he was called by God to free the Israelites out of the bonds of slavery, God leads him back into the Palace to negotiate with Pharaoh. He was God’s tour guide in the wilderness, and provided escape, food, water and protection for God’s people. A survivor for 40 years and he fostered Israel’s relationship with God in the wilderness. The promise land is across the next river. So God takes Moses up to the mountain and shows him the horizon. SCRIPTURE There are three horizons in this passage. One is of the ancestral land from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. One is of heaven, dwelling with God and lastly, one is of a new mission that Is being laid out with a new leader. On the edge of the 40-year wilderness is a great expanse of land for their taking. These will become generationally contested lands of conflict, blessing, unrest and promise. Moses’ life has been in proximity with God. Heaven, so to speak, is not a place as much as it is a place with God. Moses was God’s prophet, God’s leader of the people, God’s liberating agent, and God’s human portrait for the people’s understanding. Genesis takes the people of God into Egypt. The book of Exodus delivers these people out of Egypt and back to the edge of their ancestral lands of Canaan. These lands were promised to Abraham and Sara and their descendants. This promise holds true today as a tangible sign of God and God’s people. The rest of the stories in Pentecost will be one battle, after another in regaining the real estate lost after being absent for the last 400 years. It will show God being with Israel and how this is what God wants, but…just because this is good for Israel then why isn’t it good for everybody else? Could re-habitation of ancestral lands have been accomplished in some other way? Sitting back in Babylon writing their history, could the authors also be writing in a future hope for in returning to Judea? Complete military dominance proves who is right. But We are still reeling from the ramification of colonization practices that followed these patterns. The wars that erupt between Israel and Palestine are like that of an active volcano. APPLICATION What is the horizon of peace in the land with neighbors that we see? What is the horizon of peace with God that we see? What is the horizon of a mission that brings the peace of God into the world look like? Maybe the 85-year-old Israeli hostage saying ‘shalom’ to her Hamas captor, as they leave is not propaganda but her understanding of what it means to be God’s prophet in this time and space. The political nation of Israel whose citizens are made up the spiritual people who wrestle with God. (I Stopped here to pray for peace between Israel and Hamas) As I look over my last 33 years of ministry, I wanted church growth, but that didn’t work out, I wanted new people and we got lot of broken people, we ventured into providing services to the deaf community, which was important as many still remember our sign language vocabulary, we have a food pantry, a Preschool, and music ministry that continues. In recent years we been surviving under the shelter of God, so when God takes me up to the mountain top to see our future, it is not about inhabiting the land as far as my eye can see, but it is about seeing hurt in each of these pockets of our community. It is about seeing good in each one of these pockets of the community and it is about seeing us, in some way, through offerings, our members, our jobs as being a part of each one of those pockets of our community. When the missionary came, it could be seen that they came to conquer the islands for Christ. But now, 200 years later, we don’t need to have a Joshua to militarily dominate us into submission, but we need a Jesus who comes to dwell among us, who lives the peace of God among us, with us and through us. The mission field is not about surviving to be there in the future. The mission field is about being out there bearing the peace of God with us where ever we go. In what we do, in how we live, in our work and in the relationships we foster. This is Living the three horizons in one. For the Wailuku Parish, we don’t need one church to dominate us, but we need a vision of mission that incorporates all of who we are into a common mission of being. Not one pastor but many, not one culture but many, not one setting but many, not one language but many, If Legion can do this to wreak havoc in one person’s life and threaten an entire community, the church can do this to be a blessing by being many people who carry the name of Jesus with us and make changes that transform our community. So if the church can exhibit this change, by working together, doing something different, then we can be an example for our community to change to do things differently and to try something new. But if we are still waiting for something to happen in our horizon, we may have to die on this side of the river and lose our opportunity to do something amazing today. CONCLUSION War, violence, military dominance, systems of oppression take away our ability to connect with each other across boundaries and we become like the people of Noah’s day and cease to see the humanity in each other. We lose our connections as human beings. Destruction by chaos is not the answer to start over. Forgiveness is. This is the vision Jesus gives us in the horizon.
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SCRIPTURE: Exodus 33:12-22
TEXT: THEME: we are favored by God because of GOD’s character INTRODUCTION When we summed up the Ten Commandments last week, the commandment about carrying the name of God seemed to encompass all of the other commands of loving God and loving others. Desmond Tutu expressed this by calling women from his church in South Africa “God carriers.” Not only are they made in the image of God, but as the ones who carry the Name of God for all the world to see, by what it means to live in relationship with God. Israel is growing in their relationship with God. They have an incredible heritage and a homeland that they are returning to. They have God’s involvement in their lives, liberating them from Pharaoh, providing in the wilderness. But now Moses has been away from them as he went up the Mountain to spend time with God. They feel insecure, frightened, nervous, and abandoned. Fear causes them to feel anxious as they wait for Moses’ return. They soon reach the point where they are ready to abandon all of the headway they have made in their relationship with God. They resort back to what they are familiar with. They go to Aaron, sensing their evil intent, he initiates a grand gesture to appease their fears. He collects their gold and forge it in the shape of a calf, a symbol strength and wealth. While on the mountain, God gives Moses a heads up of what is happening down below. God is ready to throw in the towel with Israel but Moses restates the intents of God and God stays the course. This doesn’t prevent Moses from being livid when he arrives and sees the revery and smashes the stone tablets. God would step back and let some other heavenly agent take oversights over these people. But Moses, in the passage for today, convinces God to remain and have favor with the people God. SCRIPTURE Moses’ negotiations with God are clever. He is not making God do anything God doesn’t want to do. Actually all Moses does is restates what God has said, God wanted to accomplish. How can Israel show that they are a favored people if God is not with them? How can God show Israel the way of God if God is not with them? How can God be distant from them if they are to carry their relationship with God to other people? This brings us to the importance of this passage, of being favored by God. I listened to a Pod cast this week by Mo King who interviewed African American Astronaut Leland Melvin. Leland Melvin is also a former NFL athlete, scientist, engineer, photographer, musician, author, and an inspiration to the next generation of explorers to pursue S.T.E.M. careers. As he tells the story of his life, at critical points there were people who helped him, stepped in, gave guidance, and encouragement. He described them as the man in the Yellow hat from Curious George books. The man in the Yellow Hat was always there and always had Curious George’s back. We have people who have done that for us, and this is what it means to have God’s favor, to have God present, to be in relationship with God. It is living our lives as Curious George and knowing that God, will be the person in the Yellow Hat, who always has our back. This is what it means for us to be God Carriers, this is what it means to be God’s People, distinctive for the rest of the nations of the world to see. God has our back. APPLICATION In our evolution of theology, of what it means to be the church, is being shaped by changes in our society. Certainly technology is shaping us. The younger generation not finding our present form of the church relevant, is changing us. We are more than a century and a half of being the church in Wailuku, with stories of God, and faithful people who have shaped us into who we are today. Building upon that foundation, we are trying to position ourselves to be ready for the next thing God is going to be doing as the church. How do we continue to build upon where we have come to and not find comfort in the old models of how we used to be? Moses negotiated for the presence of God to continue to be with the people of God as a sign of God’s continued favor upon them. As God is present, there can be a continued understanding of what it means to live according to God’s ways. There can be a continued discovery of the many facets of the character of God, there can be the building of our live on truth with a deeper of appreciation of its wisdom. Our relationship with God has never been on where we ask and God gives. It has been a mission, a calling, an equipping, sending and engagement. Our God cannot be manipulated or managed. This is not the kind of God that makes life or religion easier, but the Certainly, kind of God that travels with us, moves us towards others, wrestles with us, builds and forms better communities. Seeing God face to face, as equals is not the goal of our life with God. It would be the death of us. But being able to see the glory left in God’s wake is. To see the activity of God in love, compassion, making accommodations for others to participate, God’s listening to our cries and God’s initiation of good towards us is all part of living in God’s favor. CONCLUSION God’s Compassion and favor towards us is not based on how good we are, but on the character of God, just like how our parents loved us when we were good and bad. It is God’s character that shapes and forms us to evolve as human beings. I talked with Josh, our Hoku I’wa consultant this week and he asked how things were going with the working of the Three churches. I said we are at three very different places. And then came the fear. When I retire or die in the pulpit, whichever comes first, and the church is without pastoral leadership for a couple years, A few well intended members will go to the Council and say, “we want things to go back to the way they were.” Then the Council will say, “lets collect all of your gold rings, earrings, bracelets and chains and melt them down into a mold of an idol of the past and have a revival.” Or will the church say, “We have come all this way with God, theologically, structurally, in being the faithful people of God and in what we are doing in the community. And yes, it is uncomfortable to feel this anxiety and discomfort, with the calling of the new minister taking so long (because there are less ministers out there, and those in seminary don’t want to work with congregations, and not all are theologically trained to consider other theological theories of salvation) but God has brought us here this far. So let us keep on keeping on, trusting in God, in ourselves and each other until the next part unfolds.” When things take longer than we think it is okay to sit in the discomfort and resist the temptation to snap back to how things used to be and wrestle with God, because if we do, we see God, like the Person in the Yellow Hat being with us. I hope there would be some in the congregation who would shout out “No golden calf.” And the historians in our group who would say “remember, Edmund Bailey when he was the only member for 10 years, remember when E.K Fernandez cut the price of their soda at the County Fair and how God provided. Remember how God kept us going during the Pandemic. Remember when we got the new organ. Remember when we needed money to fix the roof on Ritter and Sanderson Hall. Remember that God has been there like a person in a Yellow Hat and God is there for us today.” And then someone will say let’s turn to the TNCH 25 and sing, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” and all kinds of prayer would erupt as we would be church. WUC would be in many forms incarnate in Wailuku, and we all would be praying. and would be the church following God. SCRIPTURE: Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20
TEXT: 7You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name. THEME: INTRODUCTION The events of the attacks on Israel and the retaliation on Hamas made me reflect on the story of Noah. The details of the story are not as important as the themes. Avivah Zornberg says that the people in Noah’s day stopped connecting with each others and lost their humanity. In the story before the ark, their intermarriages created offspring that were considered monsters. A monster is label given, to make another human being deemed as less than, with diminished respect and treatment. One of the basic characteristics of being human is connecting with each other which is exemplified in the story of Noah while he doesn’t even utter a single word. The flood represents a reset to start over because of the irreconcilable relationships. This story ends with God promising not to destroy the world in this fashion again. Some say not by water but the next time by fire. Actually, it could mean that vengeance for vengeance’s sake has no end. The only things that can bring this cycle of hurt to an end is forgiveness. The capability to forgive the hurt inflicted upon us, by giving up our right to hurt back can open up conversations, restores our humanity and has the potential to bring about peace. A group of supporters for Israel showed up at our state’s building to encourage support to Israel, while a smaller group of supporters for Palestine gathered. This reminded me of the Egyptians who perished at the closing of the Red Sea. These souls were also loved by God. The shouting from one group drowned out the other. When we lose the ability to communicate with others, we lose our ability to connect with other human beings. There is a long history of hurt inflicted on each side along the Gaza Strip, of claiming the land for their own, and losing it, and reclaiming it. Both sides have legitimate claims to it with a long list of generational hurts. Reparations will not sooth these deep wounds, only the forgiveness of hurt will. SCRIPTURE This brings us to the passage for today. We can see it as the commandments of God given to a people to stay the course. But it is not obedience to a set a rules that saves us. These are the acts of a God who loves us. So Jesus sums up these ten commandments into two; love God and love each other. But we can simplify these commandments even further, to just one, verse 7; “not to use the Lord’s name in vain” or to “Carry our relationship with God as an example of what it means to be in relationship with God.” How do we carry our relationship with God? In its original language, Hebrew uses the verb ‘to carry’ or ‘bear.’ The same verb used to ‘carry’ or ‘bear’ the ‘ark of the covenant’ across the Jordan into the promised land. How do we carry our relationship with God in our lives? Through the book of Exodus we have captioned the compassion of God. Initiating a rescue for these slaves in Egypt. God’s feats of strength that cause a Pharaoh to relent. Protective cloud and warming pillar of fire guide and form the people of God out of slaves. Fed daily by God and living water to drink these people are ready to know what the rules of this Compassion. It is for them to be compassionate with; Love, relationships, stewardship of resources, sharing, generosity, kindness, help, forgiveness, respect and living in peace. Carry this Compassion of representing God to the rest of the nations. It is as if we have an Invisible brand or tattoo that identifies us as God’s. So everything we do is a feature role as God’s representatives. God is not seen in our obedience to the So, commands, but in our living of them So, This is what Jesus does. Jesus is not living a life that is obeying a bunch of commands, but is gracefully living his relationship with God among us. This is where we have gotten our relationship with God wrong. We think it is about settling our account with God in a balance of sin and grace. It is not. It is about a compassionate God who loves us and this compassion that helps us to improve the quality of our love with others. APPLICATION Yesterday Carl and Becky Ashizawa, from Logos Book Store in Honolulu were the conduit for Bible publishing companies to donate Bibles to those affected by the Lahaina Fire. They shipped Bibles out to us and we stored and displayed these Bible in our sanctuary for churches to come and get what they wanted. Their generosity, hard work, cheerfulness and devotion to get the word of God into the hands of those whose lives could find meaning and life from the word of God was displayed in what they did. They didn’t have to wear a Christian T shirt, or cross around their neck, they carried the name of Christ in what they did. Our sanctuary, in its beauty and stained-glass windows, carries the name of a compassionate God. Its light and color speak about a resurrected Jesus in its main panel, not a debt canceling payment. How differently we live our lives when we focus on the living as people who are loved to live with resurrection promise rather those who have a paid admission. I was surprised by the number of people who dropped by and came in, just because we had the doors of the church open. Some had theological conversation, others wanted to know History, another came to pray and connect with the holy, and others came for Bibles to share with their fellow sojourners of the fire. CONCLUSION After 400 years in Egypt, the descendants of Abraham are returning to Canaan and discover that there are people who are living where their family used to live. This represented the God of Babylonian times, and Israel’s culture and physical needs. The bloody battles to reclaim ancestral lands become the demonstration that Israel carries the name of God. A part of their Humanity is lost, as there are no connections, conversations, negotiations, treaties, or alliances made with the present inhabitance of ‘their’ land, only hostile take overs. Israel is unified at this time but as they settle in and spread out over the land, their interest move towards other things as they once again become captives in the future by the Roman Empire. War and hostile takeover is not the only way to show that God is with them. This is the result when we fail to connect with others and lose our humanity. Seeing the image of God in others, gazing upon their wounds, seeing their humanity restores our humanity. Understanding that their needs are the same needs we have, and the wrongs we have done in the past, we both have much to be forgiven for, so that we can begin to figure out a future. Or else, the more powerful violence will prevail, for a false peace, while beneath hurts will festers into another retaliatory strike for justice is made towards some other false peace. Listen to the hurt and feelings being expressed, see the humanity of other human beings, and carry the name of God in this chaos towards creating a shared hope through the mending of relationship in forgives. SCRIPTURE: Exodus 17:1-17
TEXT: 15And Moses built an altar and called it, The Lord is my banner. THEME: Our compassionate God is present with us. INTRODUCTION As we looked at the passages in Exodus we have discovered the compassionate love of God for those chosen by God; the family of Abraham and Sarah. There is no specialness other than the distinguishing quality of belief in God. Abraham believed and so did Sarah. Belief in God is not exclusive to them, but the way we live with God should invite others to explore and discover their own relationship with God. Following God they ended up in Egypt. When that turned sour, following God led to their exit from Egypt and into the wilderness. God has been compassionate towards them with liberation, rescue, escape, food, and now with water. SCRIPTURE Did you know that you can live for 40 days without food (as a fast) but probably for only 3 days without water? But we can feel thirsty and hungry every few minutes all day long. In the wilderness, the fear of dying makes the people edgy. They are unfamiliar with the territory, not knowing where the water is going to come from makes them anxious. Short of going out there to dig around for water, the only thing they can do is to go their leaders to complain. Their power is the people. I think they number about a million plus people needing water. Their complaint, carries a lot of weight. Especially when our leaders are elected officials. This is what community organizers use to be heard in the public arena. When an issue is not supported by Power or Money, it can be heard if the people organize to make themselves heard. Their numbers voting in one way, for a single purpose will get those in power or with money’s attention. People can sway an election in one direction or another, especially if the masses think you are on their side. This is the strategy I see our former president using to his advantage by not participating in any of the debate, this way, without saying anything, the people will think that he is on their side. Power and Money will take the mass’ concerns seriously when they realize that their unitary focused can disrupt their power and money. In this case, the masses have an anxiety about water and take their complaint to Moses with the same argument, that if God wanted to kill them of thirst in the wilderness, it would have taken less time and effort just to have killed them while they were slaves in Egypt. Of course, this is not what God wanted to do. God knows that complaining is one way that the people are expressing their fears, their worry, their anxiousness, and their thirst. Like with the lack of food, God already had a provision for water in mind. Here is the confusing part, it is not the staff of Moses that has power, but the presence of God that execute change for Israel. It is not the cross around our necks, the oil we anoint with, even the prayers we articulate, it is the presence of God that initiates a change in our lives. But the staff becomes a prop to see the works of God, almost like a wand a magician uses to make things appear, but really, we know the wand doesn’t have any power, it’s the magician’s ability to create the illusion, just as the staff focuses our attention to see what God is doing. Ah then God’s help in the battle against the Amaleks was not contingent on how long or how high Moses could hold the staff up as much as it was for the Israelites to know that God was present and helping them win this battle. The staff was a visual aid to help us focus on what God was doing for Israel. What we then do in the presence of the Lord is the Amalek’s banner by which we live. When people ask what happened to the people who used to live in the wilderness, the Amaleks, the answer will be about how the banner of the Lord is over the Israelites. APPLICATION How is the banner of the Lord over us? I got this from Josh, who wanted to share this encouragement with the church Council. (I edited it to fit my sermon) “There are so many churches who, when seeing challenges in the world or neighborhood are focused on: 1. Serving - contributing towards the needs we see in our community. The needs of the community are overwhelming, but do not address the causes of this disparity. 2. Studying - many churches believe that the best way to engage the needs in the world is through studying what the problems are. These usually result in a committee that is tasked to do a study that ends up on a shelf somewhere. 3. But Wailuku Union Church has taken their study on what it means to be a missional church and is living out what it means to solve problems. This is an unusual and highly needed stance towards the issues in the world. Your willingness to actually do something about it is both rare and scary. Thank you for letting me be a part of it” –Josh The banner of the Lord is seen over us in what we are doing and by how we are living. Last year I was. Invited to hold signs in front of the County Building for “Stand Up Maui” waving signs to encourage the County Council to prioritize the building of Affordable Housing. As I stood there waving, and saw those waving with me, I realized that these people are speaking up, but WUC were the only ones actually doing something with what we had. We are rare and scary to take what it says in scripture and to live by with even in regards to a piece of property we own, using what we have to Love our Neighbors. Then when we took a vote a couple of weeks ago to give the Council the authority to negotiate the sale of that property, the congregation’s vote was rare and scary but one of stewardship, faith and trust in God. The banner of the Lord is seen over us in what we do and in how we live. CONCLUSION Water from a rock was the story at chapel time for our preschoolers this week. The banner from the front of the church was showed to them. “Be the church: Protect the environment. Care for the poor. Forgive often. Reject racism. Fight for the powerless. Share earthly and spiritual resources. Embrace diversity. Love God. Enjoy this life.” This is the banner over this church. This is a banner of what can be expected from us. This is a banner of what can be expected of God. It is the staff of Moses directing our attention to what the presence of God is doing, so everyone can believe in God; the Israelites as well as those asking questions about the Amaleks. |
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April 2024
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