SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 33:14-16
TEXT: THEME: INTRODUCTION This year, to gain of copyright permissions for our YouTube service we decided to write our own Advent Candle lighting materials. What this meant, was that we could come up with our own themes for each of the Advent Sundays. So, following the thought of the Reign of Christ from the Last Sunday in Pentecost, we are preparing for Christ’s Reign, with the candles of the Reign of Peace, the Reign of Hope, the Reign of Love and the Reign of Joy, with the Christ Candle on Christmas Eve marking the Reign of Christmas. SCRIPTURE Jeremiah is a prophet warning of an impending invasion. But the people of God are so divided, no one wanted to listen to his message from God. In fact, to silence the voice of God, Jeremiah was imprisoned. Our world is divided in so many ways. We are pulled to line up on one side or the other. In the past there may have been one issue or two at a time; slavery, civil rights, women votes, but today, we have so many issues all at once that divide us: Vax or no vax, Trump or no Trump, Black Lives Matter or only my life matters, Global warming or climate hoax, Science or intuition, Facebook/Fox News or NPR, Immigration wall or amnesty, LGBTQ?+ or abomination, Law enforcement or systematic racism, the women’s soccer team being paid just as much as the men’s soccer team or sexism, anti-abortion or a women’s right to determine what to do with their own body. The People of God were divided in a civil war. Israel to the north and Judah to the south. On the horizon, the Babylonian super power was poised to be the hand of God to bringing the civil war to an end by becoming their common, conquering enemy. The Babylonian invasion will put an end to Judah’s rebellion against God and gives them a new beginning. We want peace, but on our terms. We want things to be resolved in our way. We want to have the force, or power to do things our way, but we are not always privileged to be on the side of the victor or the dominant culture. Jesus brings a disruption to our long-held positions, in order for us to yield, to see the world through a different perspective. To understand things in a new way. For us to be willing to adjust, accommodate, compromise, re think our position for something greater that God is showing us. We are not grateful for the Babylonian Invasion and the many lives lost fighting for Israel. But we are grateful for the record of the Bible that began to be written down during their captivity in Babylon. We are thankful for the values preserved in stories of faith that are still applicable in the stories we live today. Our first response, is for a powerful God to defeat our enemies, but found in the stories of God and God’s people is wisdom, long suffering, folly, a moving away from our selfishness towards being loving and caring for everyone, in forming communities of care, like a family, that are expressions of the Kingdom of God. Jeremiah predicts a tremendous destruction of the empire they have built, for a springing forth of some old roots, to create something aligned with the dream of God at Creation. APPLICATION Even in the coming Reign of Christ, there will still be times of struggle. In preparation for Thanksgiving Dinner Conversation, NPR asked when was the last time that we heard such a convincing and compelling argument that we changed our minds to begin to live our lives differently? If that rarely happens, then what makes us think that our argument would be that piece of information needed for the non vaxer to vaccinate or for a mandate resister to think mandatory or a Trumpster to throw their hat in for Biden. Instead, NPR recommended listening to the root cause of their fear and to try and understand things from their perspective. We don’t have to agree with them, just understand where they are coming from during the Thanksgiving meal. Maybe this is one of the ways that we can learn to live peaceably with others. When the Reign of Christ comes, there will still be struggles. Some of our struggles will be with fellow Christians over issues such as abortion, immigration, LGBTQ+? And more. To have peace will not mean all of us believing in the same way, but having a respect for each other, that we can listen, understand what the other is feeling and then finding ways to work together. Uniformity was never the goal of our creative, imaginative, colorful God. But finding ways in which we can live in relationship with each other has always been at the forefront. At our Church’s annual state wide meeting, the Aha Pae’aina, and I would often find myself on one side of an issue and this colleague, consistently stood on the other. Year after year I criticized his liberal agenda apart from any Biblical mandate. Then in the late 1990’s, his Church, like ours were one of the Pilot churches that participated in the New Creation Initiative sponsored by our Hawaii Conference. We were broken up into small groups around Biblical Texts. We ended up in the same group. As we shared our insights on the passage, I was amazed at what he saw, his knowledge and scholarship. Then the turn came when we took that truth of this passage and tried to figure out how our lives would be lived differently because of this truth. And there it was. What I thought that was only a Social Gospel, was actually a Biblical application of the truth of God in our neighborhood. We were on the same side all along. More than any liberal agenda was a common heart, to live truth of God in practical ways. Listening and understanding, where my colleague was coming from has brought us peace. CONCLUSION With the Reign of Christ, comes a Reign of Peace, but not in the way we think, with the end of all wars, held under, by a power so great, that it is useless to resist (I can almost hear Darth Vader’s theme song in the background). There will always be rebel forces that will fight against the Empire with resistance for something better, freed from oppression, and liberated to live in relationships with others (now I hear the triumphant music played at the end of Star Wars as the Death Star is destroyed and Han Solo, Chewbaka, Luke Sky Walker, Princess Leia, C3PO and R2D2 are recognized for their heroics.) But that back ground music ends with trills as the X wing fighter flies into space, indicating that this peace, that was bought at tremendous price, is only this part of the story with more to come. After all, Empire, if given the chance, will Strike Back. The Reign of Peace is an ongoing work of relationship, with listening, understanding, respect, nurturing, accommodations, adaptations, reconciliation, forgiveness, compromise, consideration, mindfulness, learning, conversations, communication, agreements, covenants, love, grace and joy. I threw those three in at the end for good measure, all to say that the Reign of Peace is not a one-time event, but something we live and work into all of the time. This is how peace has its reign in us.
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SCRIPTURE: John 18:33-37
TEXT: 37cFor this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice. THEME: The reign of Christ is the reign of gratitude in our hearts. Let the feelings of gratitude well up inside of you and overflow with Thanksgiving. INTRODUCTION I am beginning a sermon series for Advent preparing us for the Reign of Christ at Christmas. One of the themes that will be carried through Advent will be that of Gratitude that turns to Thanksgiving. In wondering about the difference between Gratitude and Thanksgiving, I rediscover a podcast by Krista Tippett, on Tippet Being, where she interviewed Brother David Steindl-Rast, a Benedictine monk and teacher who authored a few books on the subject of gratitude. He says that gratitude is an experience, something we feel or sense in our hearts, as if being filling up with joy. We feel it but don’t have words to articulate it. It wells up in our hearts, quiet and still until it begins to overflow. Then as it pours over, it begins to make a little noise, as it sparkles and ripples down over the sides and joy come to itself. It comes to the point where the heart sing, thanking somebody, into what Steindl-Rast calls “Thanksgiving”. The Reign of Christ is like this, as we sense it, feel it in our hearts. It fills us up with joy but there are no words to express this until what is filling up inside of us, begins to over flow. Making a running noise, sparking in the sun and splashing into the reservoir below. SCRIPTURE Jesus’ ministry was like this, as he traveled along the Galilean countryside, healing, teaching, casting out demons and bringing about gratitude to God in the people he reached. As crowds followed him, joy begins to noisily overflowed the fountain, with souls shouting “Hosanna”, over turning the market place tables in the temple courts, and in arguments challenging the teaching of the Pharisees. The Roman Empire began to feel threatened. The Temple Religion felt that they were losing their grip on their followers and so they arrested Jesus, tried him of blasphemy, accused him as an enemy of Rome, and hand him over to Pilate to be executed. In this passage, we have the meeting of these super powers, the Rome Empire, in Pilate, face to face with the cosmic power of the God, the Creator of the Universe, in Jesus. Pilate thinks that he is in control, but by the way Jesus speaks, Pilate was never in that position. Pilate comes in and summons Jesus to be brought to him and asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus was arrested by the Jews and brought before Pilate, with a claim of kingship. Jesus asks, “Is that something you wanted to know or is that something that was told to you?” How is Pilate to know? He is not a Jew, after all its Jesus’ own people and Chief Priest who handed him over to Pilate. So, Pilate asks, “What have you done?” This is where the reader of John’s Gospel can answer: changed water into wine, healed the sick, cast out demons, calmed the storm, offers living water, talked about God in ways that burns in the hearts of people, forgiven sin, disrupted the temple religion, offered a real relationship with God, accepted us for who we are and showed us how God so loves the world. If they were Jesus’ followers, they would not have allowed Jesus to be handed over. Jesus may not be the King of the Jews, but Jesus does Reigns over all. All Pilate heard was MY KINGDOM is not of this world, if MY KINGDOM were from this world my followers would not have handed me over, MY KINGDOM is not from here, so he concludes, “You are a King!” To which Jesus responds with what is true. In the usual “Johnnine” fashion they are speaking on two levels, one about raw political power and the other about the spiritual power that rules in heart of every person, across every boundary, not particular to any race, beyond any creed and certainly not silenced by any ruler. It is for this that Jesus was born. It is for this that Jesus has come into the world. Jesus testifies, reveals, teaches, lives, dies and is resurrected to the truth of God. APPLICATION The dynamics of this meeting, between Pilate and Jesus show the insignificance of even a super power like the Roman Empire, compared to the immense, calm, controlled power of God. The fountain is filling with impressions and feeling of Jesus. When our experiences of Jesus are filled to overflowing, what do we say, shout, sing and do as gratitude becomes expressions of thanksgiving? The Reign of Christ is like this, “There are many things and events, for which we cannot be grateful for, but in every moment, there are things that we can be grateful for.” Gratitude is about being present in the moment, and seeing the opportunity in the moment, beyond the current circumstance. Things do not need to be perfect for Christ to reign in our lives. But in every circumstance, Christ can occupy that situation and over flow in us to bring gratitude and thanksgiving. In our families, in our work place, in our relationships. In our health, in our scarcity, in our needs and wants. In the injustices we bear, in the inequity we endure, in the fears we carry. In our pain, in our loneness, in the persecution against us. In the divisiveness that separates, in the prejudice that promotes hate, in the violence that wounds souls as well as bodies. In the missing children, in the pandemic, in our climate. In the grief we hold in our hearts, in the weakness we feel, in the clarity that eludes us. With Christ Reigning in us we can learn to be grateful in every moment but not for everything that has happened. And as those feeling of Christ well up inside of us with Gratitude, they can pour over into articulations of Thanksgiving. CONCLUSION When Pilate asks Jesus, “What have you done?” There is also a litany of feelings that well up in us with each thing that Jesus has done: wholeness, acceptance, love, joy, peace, contentment, rest, ease, reconciliation, hope, forgiveness, belonging, beloved-ness, companionship, inspiration, engagement, insight, affirmation, sending, mission, called, worthy, grace, gifted, enough. We are enough. God sees us as good and that is Good enough. Good enough for God and that should be good enough for us. The reign of Christ is about feeling gratitude. Let the feeling of gratitude well up inside of you. No labels, no words, no concepts just feelings. Hold on to it, embrace it, feel it. And when it spills over the edges beyond what you can hold on to, shout, sing, rejoice, exult and love. Find the words, Let the words come out and let your actions be of thanksgiving to God and to others. SCRIPTURE: Mark 12:38-44
TEXT: 44c put in everything she had, all she had to live on. THEME: Living an attitude of devotion towards God. INTRODUCTION Charlie Kaneyama* told this joke at my home church in Waimea. When Charlie was young boy, his mother sent him to Sunday school, and gave him one dime for offering, and one dime for ice cream after Sunday school. Oh, he was so happy, walking to Sunday school. He was playing with the coins as he walks when all of a sudden, one of the coins got away from him, it fell to the ground and rolled down the storm drain. Poor Charlie was so sad, he looked up to heaven and said, “Dear God, I’m so sorry what happened to your dime.” SCRIPTURE Looking at the events that take place in the last week of Jesus’ life It sees that Judaism is taking a turn away from temple worship to a relationship model. Jesus began his week in Jerusalem by ridding the temple court of unnecessary distractions, clearing the way for those who were seeking God. As he teaches in the temple, he fields questions from the congregation to help them move towards the loving intent of God and to live in relationship with God. When the questioning became antagonistic, a scribe jumps in and asks a question about the Commandments. This calls to consciousness the behavior of the inquisitors, as those who love God and are to be loving towards each other’s. Jesus recognized that this scribe was close to the Kingdom of God. As Jesus continues his time in the temple, he makes a scathing criticism of the temple religion in the form of a warning. “Beware of the scribes who are in the temple religion for themselves and not for God.” The temple attitude of market place racketeering shows itself in the behavior in how the scribes take advantage of the most vulnerable for their own benefit and prestige. Jesus then witnesses the effect of their selfishness as a poor widow comes forward to place two coper coins into the treasury. She could have been one of those widows who was devoured by greedy scribes. She followed the ostentatious displays of wealth, as loud offerings called attention to the givers. But she was not deterred or ashamed. She is poor but knows that she has a right and a place to be here in the temple and gives her offering. She offers all that she has to live on to the treasury. This woman of faith gives each other’s herself to God. What is being ignored by the snobs is noticed by Jesus. He tells the disciples, 44a“All have contributed out of abundance but she in her poverty has put in everything she had…” Throughout Jesus’ ministry, he has been repeating the theme of serving others and not being served. It is not a matter of who is the greatest or sits at the right or left side of Jesus. The Kingdom of God is more like what we do in welcoming children, we enfold them with our resources, we include them as heirs, we help them, nurture them, teach them, instill our faith in them, enrich their lives with our values and our culture, we do all of this with no benefit to ourselves, but with a caring for them and a hoping for their future. Holding this vision of the Kingdom of God, Jesus notices the widow’s actions and raises her to a position of power and influence of the community, by her attitude of devotion, her act of service and her sacrificial trust in God. APPLICATION Despite how she has been treated. She has kept her faith in God. She does not back down by the looks of others, but is confident in her relationship with God. She contributes all she has to live on, to live on what God will provide. How does the church respond to God’s mandates of love? When I was in college, I was on an allowance. There were times when I ran short of cash. I remember one Sunday; I placed my last two dollars in the offering plate with about a couple more weeks before my next allowance. I didn’t tell anyone and decided to suffer in silence. After service, one of the members of the church invited me to dinner. I was sent home with left overs that held me to the middle of the week when some other Christian friend took me out to eat. And The church, my Christian friends helped me even though they didn’t know it. Just by being who they were in Christ. This is how Jann and I began our marriage. After we got married, we left for the mainland for my last year of seminary. The money we deposited in my checking account needed 10 working days before it cleared so we were left with nothing to live on for the next two weeks. Again, it was the people of the church that I was attending that took care of us without even knowing. Friends from seminary also came to our rescue. It was answered prayer by the Body of Christ just being the Body of Christ with each other. We don’t have to go out of our way to live in service of others, it may be a meal, sharing papayas, lending a helping hand, a phone call, giving a ride, or a generosity in how we live our lives with God and others with thankfulness, gratitude and worshipping God. Community is built by living in this way as loving relationships are fostered. CONCLUSION Charlie Kaneyama’s joke is funny because we feel the same dilemma with our finances, when we spend what we intended to give to God, while making sure we have our share for ice cream. It is an uncomfortable situation giving up what we think is ours, towards a treasury that already has wealthy contributors. But it is not about how much is in the treasury as much as it is about what we do with what we have, with what is in our hearts. Jesus talks about serving others and not being served. When we are a steward of what we have, there is a portion for us to worship God, by giving a part of ourselves to God and a part for us to live on. Being a steward of the gifts of God in this way, we are influencers of community and culture with our attitude of devotion towards God. *Charlie Kaneyama, grew up in the plantain camps in Kekaha. He learned to play the ukulele from Hawaiian friends. His day job was working at the plantation but his passion was music and entertaining. He taught the ukulele to children and had a troupe that performed all over the island at multiple events. He told jokes and did magic tricks. He was a member of the Waimea Christian Church. Good humored, humble, kind, faithful and great story teller. SCRIPTURE: Mark13:1-8
TEXT: 2b“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” THEME: The mission Jesus brings to us is not the building but beyond. INTRODUCTION The Samoan Congregation’s youth conducted the service last week. They did an excellent job, a bit of Bruno Mars type synchronized dance steps, Scripture readings in both English and Samoan, signing the songs they sang, a Sermon admonishing parents to be examples of faith that they can emulate, prayers and grab and go food at the end. It was a COVID safe event. From what I know about ‘White Sunday’ it is about adults listening to what the children and youth have to say. Faith is being instilled in these youth. They invited me to make a few remarks at the end, to which I added, “Our job as adults is to model and live the Christian life as best we can, and when the Youth and children come, and say this is what we believe God wants the church to be, it will be our responsibility to get out of the way.” SCRIPTURE If I had preached last week, it would have been about the Jesus answering the question of which commandment is the greatest. In essence Jesus says to love God and to love our neighbor. In the Gospel of Luke, the further explanation of who our neighbor is, is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan. Following the lectionary, this week’s passage should be the story of the widow’s mite, but I am reserving this passage for next week’s sermon, on Stewardship. Jumping ahead, Jesus is coming out of the temple as the disciples are admiring the wonderful stone architecture of the temple, to which Jesus adds, 2b“Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.” Peter, James, John and Andrew privately ask him what this means. Jesus gives them an apostolic (or revealing) answer, that worship, in the future is going to be different. The Judaism that Jesus is proposing, cannot be contained within these temple walls. This stone building too, will be too small a container for what God is doing through Jesus. APPLICATION If we continue to do church the same way that we have been, then I have serious concerns about the future church. A seminarian today, graduates with about $60,000 in student loans. (The other fearful thought is that, the Hawai’i Conference does not have anyone who is currently in seminary that I know of.) This means the newly hired pastor from seminary, will need to have a salary that will help to pay down the loans, as well as housing for a Maui rental and contribution into a pension for retirement. The model of a church supporting a full-time seminary trained pastor, solely with on membership contribution, is obsolete. In order to afford a pastor, run programs, and up keep of its facilities, the church will have to have other source of income or consider different ministerial models. As of the writing of the Gospel of Mark, the stone temple in Judaism was destroyed by the Roman Empire, ‘with not one stone left upon another.’ Judaism was forced to change how they worshiped. Last year we celebrated the bicentennial of the missionaries coming to Hawaii. Many of our church buildings are over a hundred years old, along with the problems of upkeep, repairs and termites. The vitality of the membership has been reduced, sometimes only to family clusters that hold onto the glory days, symbolically represented in the preservation of their sanctuary. Is the church just the building, one family, or is there a mission that they are missing that goes out to their neighbors, that didn’t require their building? What is the something new that Jesus is bringing to us today, to participate in, that might not require our stone building? Or how is our building an asset to the ministry of Christ? Every so often I get a crazy idea that I follow down a rabbit hole. We had to scrunch up the pews during the pandemic to create a 6-foot spacing for our safely meeting with each other. One day while sitting in the empty sanctuary, I wondered if we needed all of the pews. We actually have two different set of pews. I think the original ones are made of Tiger Oak, while the newer additions were made of pine and fill up the alcove by the back door. Before the pandemic, we were about 50-60 people on a good Sunday. Post pandemic, with our hybrid Internet service I don’t image us ever being that full on Sundays. Then I read the introduction of a book published by Pilgrim Press, where Remove the Pews Spiritual Possibilities for Sacred Spaces by Donna Schaper “Judson Memorial in Manhattan, took out the pews in 1969” She writes. “A postmodern dance group met on Saturday night when the church thought, “Why not give them more space?” Their sanctuary became a center for dance, theater, music, protest, and more. These guests to their property began showing up on Sunday mornings. Today, Jordan Memorial Church is dependent upon the income from these events, and as a way to bring new people to their church to be part of their ministry.” What if we got rid of our pine pews, spread out the rest of the pews in a spacious manner, there would be an open feel and we would have more possibilities for different kind of events and people to join us. We would keep the original tiger oak pews and bring in the blue chairs from Dodge Hall when we larger events. What is the something new that Jesus is calling us to be as a church that might be beyond our stone building? Thirty years ago, when I first visited Wailuku Union Church, I came with 3x5 index cards in my pocket. I wrote down my first impressions. There was only street parking at that time. As I got out of my car, I felt afraid for my young daughters, warning them not to get out on the traffic side of the car. We walked from the side walk up a few steps, and then to the front steps of the church. The members then, loved the grassy lawn in front of the church. I proposed a turnaround drive way with on campus parking. I told them of my fearful experience with my young children. It wasn’t until a senior member of the church, missed a step and fell in the front, that things began to move in putting the turnaround drive way we have today. We sacrificed our lawn for safer accessibility into the church and preschool. Mega churches are built around charismatic leadership. There aren’t too many of those types of leaders around. But there are more people like me, that are just run of the mill type persons, taking the word of God seriously and trying to find ways to live its truth in life and in our world. In the future, there may be incarnations of Wailuku Union Church that will meet in a coffee shop, with pizzas at a laundromat, hosting an AA meeting, or group of Micronesian young adult men in a home every other week sharing a meal and watching a video, with run of the mill type persons. The leader of each of these groups would need training, as most of them would have a sense of call but no formal seminary training. The Hawaii CTEL classes from PSR would be an affordable and accessible source for Continuing Education. These churches are independent but would benefit from the wider community of faith with us and our Tri-Isle Association. These churches are not self-sufficient, not being able to support themselves or their pastor but seeking a subsidy from a church body that might find themselves with the finances from a housing project to support such a church gathering as part of their mission. A different model of what church may look like as the church moves out side to where the people are. CONCLUSION I am thankful for the faithful who have come before us and who have preserved the faith and challenged us to live faithfully in our world. They were Saints. We may have to let go of how things were done in the past, for the something new God wants to do in our age. At chapel this week I took the preschoolers out the front door and to the left. On the side of the steps, there is the largest stone of our building. A large square stone with the year. 1911 chiseled on it. This is our cornerstone. We thought more people and more money was the mark of a Church’s success. Now we see faithfulness and missional community as the marks of following Jesus. We will have to leave some stones behind for something else that God is doing. I was never tempting that we be on TV, but through the |
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April 2024
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