Moving Forward

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
June 27th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
2Kings 2:1-2; 6-14; Luke 9:51-62
“Moving Ahead”`

What will our legacy be? When the children of our children look back to our time in history, what will they say? Will we take up a few sentences or a few pages in the church history written in 2153? When they look back to us as an example, what will they see? Will it be an example worth following or will it be a warning of what not to do?
The times we face are full of great opportunity, great promise, and great risk. I wish I could stand here today and present a three point plan or five year plan that will perfectly respond to the challenges of our time. The truth is that I cannot and neither can anyone else promise perfection. But, this does not mean we are not without hope.
Look around. No, seriously, please look around. What do you see? In five years, Westminster will not be the same place that it is today. That presents many opportunities and raises a related question. Do you want to have a hand in helping Westminster continue to live into God’s vision? I want to invite you to wrestle with that question with God in prayer. We are going to enter into a time of silence. During that time I want you to pray that God reveal one thing you can be doing right now which will move us closer to faithfulness in that vision. Maybe it will mean being more involved with the ministry of the church, or becoming a more faithful giver, or remembering Westminster in your Will, or a challenge to go deeper you spiritual life, or all of the above. But in this time, pray that God reveal one thing which you can do right now to be a part. What did you hear? Write it down right now. Also, share it with one person before the end of the day. But only do this if you think leaving a legacy for the children of our children is a worthy goal.
Transition and legacy is at the heart of these scriptures. Both Jesus and Elijah are preparing the next generation. Elijah is going to the Jordan River to be taken up and Jesus is going to Jerusalem to be strung up. Elijah is going to be wrapped up in a whirlwind and Jesus will face a storm of trouble. Both the followers of Elijah and Jesus do not fully understand what it will be like when their teachers are gone. Trouble is coming that these followers cannot even imagine. But, both Elijah and Jesus remain faithful leaving a legacy worth following for the children of their followers.
When given the opportunity to control the lives of his successor, Elijah resists. Elijah’s beloved student asks to take over. But instead of working behind the scenes to grant the request or pretending he knows the will of God, Elijah shows what it means to trust. If it is God’s will, it will happen. And if not, then it will not. It is a supreme act of trust. Elijah does not know what will happen when he is gone. He does not know if it will be exactly to his liking, but he has the radical trust that God knows best.
Jesus, in his way, prepares his followers for the road ahead. Knowing that the disciples will abandon him, he does not hold it over their heads or become the harbinger of death. Jesus continues to provide hope and teach from love. He does not hide the tough road ahead and the need to remain faithful but he does not overwhelm or leave them despairing. The followers of Jesus may not have even made it to Jerusalem if he did not lead with hope. Jesus teaches in his actions that we are to remain faithful no matter what lays in the road ahead. Not even the threat of death is to keep us from our faithfulness.
Both Elijah and Jesus leave a legacy that generations continue to follow. So, what will be the content of our story, our legacy? What will be the content of your story? We each have the ability to influence what will be said and written about us by the children of the children present in our midst. Look around, look into the faces of those who come after you and remember they are watching, taking mental notes. Today is the day we can show them our example. Will it be an example worth remembering? Amen.

Wilderness Surprise

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
June 20th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
Luke 8:26-39; I Kings 19:1-15a
“Wilderness Surprise”

As a people of faith we come to believe that our religious life is ultimately about comfort, certainty. This comfort and certainty focuses on the rhythm of our daily life, what we expect to happen in worship, and even to how we experience God in our daily lives. Any deviation from this routine can seem like an affront to very nature of God. When objections arise: “We have never done it that way before!” or the quiet disagreement that leads to behind the scenes organizing or the complete disengagement are really a struggle over a belief in the way God works. Unfortunately, despite our objections, the essence of our faith is not truly built on our desires and beliefs. However, I still believe that faith in God can bring comfort and certainty but it is never what we expect.
Elijah is exhausted and afraid. It is not exactly the picture of comfort and certainty. He has acted faithfully for God and now the Queen has placed a death sentence on his head. To save his life he runs for the wilderness and finally exhausted, physically and emotionally, lies down, begs to die, and falls into a deep sleep. No longer able to handle the direction his faithfulness has taken him Elijah is ready to let it all end.
It is finally when Elijah is fully vulnerable before God, when he is no longer the towering figure who brings down the prophets of Baal that something incredible happens. It is only when Elijah’s certainty of the ways of God come crashing down does God provides for his comfort and sustenance. But this is only the beginning of God exploding the categories of comfort and certainty.
As a people of the book, we should hear this story building up to God’s grand entrance. This journey into the wilderness begins much in the same way as Moses. Moses kills and Egyptian and runs into the wilderness and when he is exhausted it is the daughters of Jethro who provide for his needs. Moses’ whole world of comfort and certainty has come crashing down and it is only then that God provides. Each part of this story echoes something from the story of Moses. If we are not careful we too can fall into the trap of certainty and comfort believing that we know how this is going to work.
When God shows up with Moses, there is great fanfare. Burning bushes, smoke on the Mountain, earthquake, and great noise always let us know that God is on the scene. But there is where the certainty of Elijah is shattered. Expecting that God will make a grand appearance is where the certainty and comfort comes. However, Elijah seems to know that something is going on. God says; I will pass you by. So Elijah goes out and hears the mighty wind, feels the earthquake and sees the fire and realizes that God is not doing things the way God has done them before.
Some interpreters refer to this moment where God speaks as “Sheer silence.” When Elijah recognizes God’s presence in the silence he is coming face to face with what is often called: Silence rich with Holiness. It is a moment where there are no words, no sound but a moment filled with a clear confidence and certainty that God is present. The certainty and comfort that Elijah expected was fulfilled in this moment by the certainty that God is still God and the comfort that he was not alone, even in the wilderness places of life. As much as we would like to believe otherwise, this is the certainty and comfort of our faith and really everything else is up for change.
The disciples had learned their own form of comfort and certainty. Following Jesus was not without its challenges and changes, but as long as he was around, people were getting fed, healed and made clean. The religious establishment was not happy and the crowds just kept coming. But this day, Jesus takes them to the “other side.” The comfort of being in a place they knew and the certainty of the rhythm of life came crashing down on a trip to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. Likewise, the people of Geresene had come to expect that life had a certainty and comfort in knowing that the crazy man lived in the place of death. The certainty and comfort so many had come to expect. Jesus really can bring healing for “those people too,” and even out of the places where we can only see death, God can bring new life.
When I went to Israel I wondered what it would be like to see the places so many people call holy. What was it going to be like to walk in this place that Jesus once walked and lived. As we travelled to the different holy sites I found my interest in actually being in those places was rather low. Each was wrapped in struggle, and conflict, and tradition that the historicity always seemed to be in doubt. But as a natural cynic – hopeful cynic is probably a better term – it was not a great let down.
I did not go expecting to come face to face with God or have some grand encounter with God. I had my own comfort and certainty about what the trip would be all about. But on one Saturday something happened. I do not really have the words to explain it but will do my best. There is a place in Jerusalem that is known as the Western Wall. I had the opportunity to travel there on two occasions. The first was on a Saturday, Sabbath.
By all appearances, this place is just a very large wall with very large stones where people place prayers and where Jewish tradition teaches that God’s presence resides. By the time I got to the wall, the idea that God’s presence could be contained or would reside in this place over others was not something I had taken to heart of frankly believed. As I came through the security checkpoint and around the corner I looked at this collection of stones and was confronted with what I can only say was a powerful presence that I could feel in every inch of my body. I left the group and walked down to within ten feet of the wall where I stopped. It was as if I could not move.
I do not remember hearing any noise around me and at that moment tears streamed down my face. They were not tears of sorrow or joy. In fact, I do not remember being overcome by emotion at all. I remember feeling a calmness and presence and then realizing it was time to go. What seemed like five minutes turned out to be forty-five! I did not come away from that experience with a new message or mission from God, but for the next few days I could not really let it go and after a while I believed it had something to do with being tired.
But, once again, my certainty and comfort came crashing down. Two days later I had the opportunity to go to the Dome of the Rock Mosque. In order to enter the holy site in the Muslim faith, you pass within ten feet of the stones of the western wall. As I wound my way of the security bridge I was rather excited to see this site and had honestly forgotten what had happened only two days earlier. As I turned the final corner I felt the same feeling that I had forgotten about from two days before. I looked through the small slits in the wood to see where I was and noticed that I was standing the same distance from the wall I had only two days earlier. But on this day, I did not get to pause because, for security reasons, there is no stopping on the way into the Dome of the Rock.
So what do I make of this? At the end of the trip I came home with the realization that I too am just as guilty at wallowing in my own expectations of certainty and comfort. I also came home with a renewed commitment to the ministry of Westminster – in case you were wondering. And I also begin to understand just a bit what it means to have a silence filled with holiness, to be surprised in the wilderness places of life to find out that God is providing comfort and certainty but not in the way I always expect or even fully appreciate.
So once again, these passages confront us with questions we too must wrestle with. Where are the places of your comfort and certainty? Where are you seeing only death without the expectation of life? Where are you so sure that you know better than others? Or where are the places where you have narrowed the power of God to be controlled by the thoughts of your own mind? I invite you to find places for silence, find places to quiet your mind and clear the clutter of expectations. Our calling in this place is not an easy one but it is one that will bring great joy and surprise. And it is my prayer that we let down the walls of our resistance, certainty, and expectations of comfort long enough to expect life when we are surrounded by death.

Same Old Story

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
June 6th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
I Kings 17:8-24; Luke 7:11-17
Communion Meditation
“Same Old Story”

What are the stories which define our lives? Some of them we may be aware of and others may be so subtle that we do not even notice. Instead of who are you, we ask things like, what do you do? Where do you live? What high school did you graduate from? These stories also define our lives in larger ways. War is peace. Destroy the village to save the village. And I am sure you could add to the list. But let me suggest that there is a story, a message which permeates much of our culture. It is the story of Popeye the sailor.
You remember that story right? Popeye is the loveable but strange character who gets pushed around but a bully, Brutus, till he eats his spinach. Then all bets are off. Popeye is transformed into a hero who then beats the bully into a bloody pulp as we cheer at the carnage. That is not the way tell that story, but justified or not, Popeye, with his spinach, does exactly what the bully does. We tell ourselves this is necessary, this is the only way bullies can be reached. And this story is THE story of our lives. From the time of the earliest story-telling cultures to the most recent popular television show 24, a hero must do things that are beyond the scope of the law to keep us all safe because the world is a dangerous place. And, we are supposed to stand by and cheer at the carnage and death, providing a hero’s welcome.
Despite news to the contrary, this is not the story of the people of God. Attempts have been made to make it so through stories like the Chronicles of Narnia and the Left Behind series, but at the end of the day, our hero is executed by the state. At the end of the day Jesus does not eat his spinach and come back looking for revenge. Instead, the message remains the same from the moment enters the scene until the revelation of John. There is no need for Jesus to come back with the sword to cut his enemies down, instead, until the end; there is an offer of redemption.
When Jesus comes on the scene and heals the child of a woman, the crowd understands. They too have been living lives of conflicted stories. The Empire of Rome had come to dominate their lives. The Empire brings peace through strength and through the cross and sword if necessary. Might makes right and a hero must kill to be a hero. God rewards the faithful with power, money and strength, and those without are the wretched of the earth. But, for a moment, when Jesus restores this child to his mother, the crowd remembers another story.
Jesus is not the first to restore a child to his mother. Then knew of another time, a time of chaos where the powerful fed themselves and let the poor fend for themselves. They remembered how a prophet of God was sent to show another way. Elijah was a prophet who testified to otherwise. When the prophets of the powerful said might makes right, Elijah proclaimed that caring for the poor, widow, orphan and alien is right in God’s eyes. Living in a culture that only understood death, Elijah said there was enough for all. And as a widow and her son were about to die, Elijah trusted God and showed that God’s economy is based not on scarcity and limited resources, but on abundance.
If they did know or remember this story Jesus’ healing would have been just that. Jesus would have been a miracle worker – someone new come on the scene. But because the faithful knew and understand that what Jesus had done was more than the present moment they could see it for more. Into their fixed world of stories based on domination and death, the community became alive again nurtured on stories of abundance and restoration. This is our story, this is THE story which has the power to sustain us when inundated by stories of the newest and next Popeye. As we gather at this table, let us remember that the sharing of bread is our story. May we be fed here, on the stories which call us to restoration and to life. And may we find abundance in places where once we only saw death. Amen? Amen.

Three in What?

WESTMINSTER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
May 30th 2010
Rev. Mark R. Bradshaw-Miller
Proverbs 8:1-4; Romans 5:1-5; John 16:12-15
Trinity Sunday
“Three in What”

Who understands the Trinity and why does it matter? Well, the easy answer is because it has been part of church teaching since about the year 325 CE so that is good enough for some folks. I appreciate deeply a faith which has a trust in what has been handed on from subsequent generations. However, I could never leave well enough alone. I always seem to need more, and to ask the hard questions. And the doctrine of the Trinity is no exception. However, with the doctrine of the Trinity, those questions are not easily answered.
Each year I have tried to think through how to preach on the trinity. Each year, I feel like I fall short. On some level that is exactly the way it should be because the doctrine is a way of explaining something which is essentially mystery. However, it also reveals the discomfort with simply using mystery as the default response whenever we are unable to explain something. So what shall we say about this mystery of the God we know in three persons with in being.
I promise that no attempt will be made to explain all the complexities of this doctrine. Instead, I simply say that the doctrine matters at this time and place. We believe that human beings are made in the image of God. And the God we know in Jesus Christ is a God who is not solitary but in community – the communion of three in one, unity in diversity. In other words, human beings were not created to be solitary but in community. In a time of more and more individualism this is radical talk.
But it is not really radical to acknowledge that human beings need other people. So as people of a Trinitarian faith, what might that life look like? Alyce McCKenzie sums up this well when she says:
What kind of life does the Trinity shape? Lives that are a personal response to a personal God that results in participation in community. It does make a difference that God is three persons and one substance. It means we can only know God by personal response that is a participation in the activity of our Triune God in community
What does that mean? It means we can only be fully human in relationship with one another. There are no solitary Christians. We can be faithful as individuals, but not alone.
This week Jim Wallis of the Sojourners community wrote an article asking if Libertarianism and Christianity were compatible. His conclusion was that they are not. And while he is not talking about the trinity I believe he gets at our inherent interconnectedness when he says:
The Libertarian enshrinement of individual choice is not the pre-eminent Christian virtue. Emphasizing individual rights at the expense of others violates the common good, a central Christian teaching and tradition. The Christian answer to the question “Are we our brother’s keeper?” is decidedly “Yes.” Jesus tells us that the greatest commandment is to love God and love our neighbor. Loving your neighbor is a better Christian response than telling your neighbor to leave you alone.
In other words, we are made in the image of a God who shows us that we are not the end of the story. God is not solitary and neither are we.
As our society pushes us to be individuals and places our desires and wants at the center of our economic and communal life we have become more fractured, selfish, and strident. The idolatry of individualism is really just another form of totalitarianism. But the good news is that our faith teaches a different story. Our faith pushes us into relationship because it is part of the fabric of our very being. The God we worship and serve is known to us in three persons. So at the heart of our life we are released from the tyranny of self. Does this solve the mystery of the Trinity or explain away all the contradictions and difficulties? Of course not, but if this doctrine can bring us back from the brink of our current mess, then I for one am willing to live with the mystery, at least for today. Amen? Amen.