Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sermon: Connective Tissue - I Corinthians 12:12-31a
The following sermon is exploration of I Corinthians 12:12-31a.
I heard a story once that I hope is true. In a room full of violins, when one violin is struck all surrounding violins will sound the same note without being touched. Maybe you are like me and this story gives you hope.
It gives me hope because it tells me what you and I do has an impact on others. It tells me that when people stand up for what they think is right, when people reach out to help others, when people live in a way that gives glory to God, something can happen in the lives of others. It tells me that my ability to affect change, to impact the world and the people who occupy it just by what I do, how I live my life means that we are connected. You, me, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ all the world around are connected, linked in a way that makes me pause & take seriously the call that I have, the commitments that I live by, the truth that orders my days and carries me through my nights. It makes me consider the gifts that God has given me not for my own benefit but for the building up of the body of Christ. It makes me consider the gifts that God has given you too. Paul understood this better than just about anybody.
Paul writes that together we form the Body of Christ. Like a real body we are diverse in our make up, our utility, our placement in this world, yet we all have gifts, we all have jobs and calls that are required to work in harmony for this body to survive. If I, blessed with talents of hospitality, do not show welcome, then you with your gifts of compassion will be impacted. If you with your gifts of compassion cannot show love and mercy to the world because I did not provide welcome to those who needed it, then like Painter with a broken hand, we cannot be about the task before us. Paul’s complaint against the Corinthian church was that they understood gifts like we understand talents. While we may all be talented in some way, my talent for packing a suitcase cannot even begin to rate against Eric Clapton’s talent for music, or Einstein’s talent for thinking outside the box. The church thought that despite us all being blessed with gifts there were some better gifts and some inferior gifts and who got what was the providence of God. The danger here far surpasses who got the ability to speak in public, compose beautiful music, or something equally wonderful. The danger found in the Corinthian understanding is in the equating worth of gifts with worth of people. Lesser gifts, lesser people; inferior gifts, inferior people leads far away from the Kingdom of God causing Paul to point out that the gifts of those who face hardship are some of the most necessary for the Body. The poor must be our eyes showing us the face of Christ today. The oppressed must be the tips of our fingers, touching the bars that keep them at bay so that we may all know. Those who thirst must be our tongue, dry and cracked yearning for something that quenches. So it is written, “one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” Brothers and sisters, today the Body is suffering. Like bird with a broken wing, because some suffer, we all suffer.
The visuals emerging from Haiti have made it impossible to escape the truth that today and for some time now the Body of Christ is suffering. The Earthquake, the pain, the destruction, the orphans, the widows, the death and the trapped - all of it paint a picture that cannot be denied: though we live many miles away, though we didn’t feel the rumble, or lose our home, we are suffering all the way up here in cold, wintry Ohio because our eyes have seen collapse, our fingers have felt the broken concrete of a fallen nation, and our tongue is parched. We are suffering because our Haitian brothers and sisters are suffering . Yet the truth is that there are members of our body who are suffering in places where there have been no earthquakes or floods. They suffer in places of different disasters. Disasters of Human and Civil Rights, collapses of peace and security, and not unlike hurricanes, floods and earthquakes people will and continue to suffer, lose everything and some will indeed die. For as our scriptures tell us that when part of the body suffers we all suffer. Made one in Christ, connected by the Spirit, when the poor cannot find shelter we all suffer. When young girls are sold into sexual slavery we all suffer. When a partnership is broken because of domestic violence we all suffer. When the love shared between two people is called wrong we all suffer. When the elderly are neglected and the young exploited we all suffer. When the Body neglects the suffering of its members we all suffer. This is the hard work of unity.
On October 17th, 1989 I was at my childhood homes playing outside before the World Series was to begin. Neglecting my chores for too long I was called into the house to unload the dishwasher before the start of the game. Making a snap decision on how to expedite the process I opened up every cabinet we had that housed our dishes, glasses, and the like so that I might speed through the chore and get back outside. At 5:03pm this was a great idea, but one minute later when the 7.0 Earthquake now known as the Loma Prieta Quake hit the plan showed its obvious flaws. For 15 seconds my whole world rolled and rumbled as plates, glasses, and the like rained down upon me breaking over my head, arms and hands. When the shaking stopped & I had the wherewithal to look around at the sea of broken dishes and shake the glass from my hair, I noticed my hand was bleeding. There in the flesh between the thumb and the finger was a small but pretty good cut. It bled some but nothing a wad of paper towels and a little water couldn’t took care of it. My hand was bleeding - it was minor - a bookcase fell over - not a big deal. I thought that was it. It was only then that I turned on the TV and came face to face with the collapsed bridges, the crushed cars, the sink holes, the broken buildings & pain. Trying to wrap my then 11 year old mind around the destruction that I saw unfolding on the TV screen I wondered how my toppled bookcase and small cut could be my shared experience with those who lost everything. How was it that I shared in this experience with those who were trapped on the bridge or buried in buildings when I have only this small scar? Standing there watching TV, struggling with what I was witnessing, I saw men and women, some cut just like me, running not from the rubble but into it. They pulled people from their cars, they helped put out fires, they drove people to the hospital, and when they had no car they carried those far more injured then themselves to a place of safety and care.
20 years later seeing the same events play out in Haiti, I see the injured, the suffering themselves carrying those who cannot walk, liberating those who are trapped, fighting for those who cannot lift their own heads. Seeing these men and women, I am reminded of the story of the friends who carry the paralyzed man to see Jesus. They carried their friend when he could not walk. It is our job to now carry, to support, to liberate those who are trapped, injured and suffering. It is our job to carry the load so that we may rejoice when the whole Body is at peace, free to live into the call set upon our hearts, and free to be the children of God, the Body of Christ unified in the Spirit.
Let us all work to end suffering in our time. AMEN
I heard a story once that I hope is true. In a room full of violins, when one violin is struck all surrounding violins will sound the same note without being touched. Maybe you are like me and this story gives you hope.
It gives me hope because it tells me what you and I do has an impact on others. It tells me that when people stand up for what they think is right, when people reach out to help others, when people live in a way that gives glory to God, something can happen in the lives of others. It tells me that my ability to affect change, to impact the world and the people who occupy it just by what I do, how I live my life means that we are connected. You, me, our neighbors, our brothers and sisters in Christ all the world around are connected, linked in a way that makes me pause & take seriously the call that I have, the commitments that I live by, the truth that orders my days and carries me through my nights. It makes me consider the gifts that God has given me not for my own benefit but for the building up of the body of Christ. It makes me consider the gifts that God has given you too. Paul understood this better than just about anybody.
Paul writes that together we form the Body of Christ. Like a real body we are diverse in our make up, our utility, our placement in this world, yet we all have gifts, we all have jobs and calls that are required to work in harmony for this body to survive. If I, blessed with talents of hospitality, do not show welcome, then you with your gifts of compassion will be impacted. If you with your gifts of compassion cannot show love and mercy to the world because I did not provide welcome to those who needed it, then like Painter with a broken hand, we cannot be about the task before us. Paul’s complaint against the Corinthian church was that they understood gifts like we understand talents. While we may all be talented in some way, my talent for packing a suitcase cannot even begin to rate against Eric Clapton’s talent for music, or Einstein’s talent for thinking outside the box. The church thought that despite us all being blessed with gifts there were some better gifts and some inferior gifts and who got what was the providence of God. The danger here far surpasses who got the ability to speak in public, compose beautiful music, or something equally wonderful. The danger found in the Corinthian understanding is in the equating worth of gifts with worth of people. Lesser gifts, lesser people; inferior gifts, inferior people leads far away from the Kingdom of God causing Paul to point out that the gifts of those who face hardship are some of the most necessary for the Body. The poor must be our eyes showing us the face of Christ today. The oppressed must be the tips of our fingers, touching the bars that keep them at bay so that we may all know. Those who thirst must be our tongue, dry and cracked yearning for something that quenches. So it is written, “one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” Brothers and sisters, today the Body is suffering. Like bird with a broken wing, because some suffer, we all suffer.
The visuals emerging from Haiti have made it impossible to escape the truth that today and for some time now the Body of Christ is suffering. The Earthquake, the pain, the destruction, the orphans, the widows, the death and the trapped - all of it paint a picture that cannot be denied: though we live many miles away, though we didn’t feel the rumble, or lose our home, we are suffering all the way up here in cold, wintry Ohio because our eyes have seen collapse, our fingers have felt the broken concrete of a fallen nation, and our tongue is parched. We are suffering because our Haitian brothers and sisters are suffering . Yet the truth is that there are members of our body who are suffering in places where there have been no earthquakes or floods. They suffer in places of different disasters. Disasters of Human and Civil Rights, collapses of peace and security, and not unlike hurricanes, floods and earthquakes people will and continue to suffer, lose everything and some will indeed die. For as our scriptures tell us that when part of the body suffers we all suffer. Made one in Christ, connected by the Spirit, when the poor cannot find shelter we all suffer. When young girls are sold into sexual slavery we all suffer. When a partnership is broken because of domestic violence we all suffer. When the love shared between two people is called wrong we all suffer. When the elderly are neglected and the young exploited we all suffer. When the Body neglects the suffering of its members we all suffer. This is the hard work of unity.
On October 17th, 1989 I was at my childhood homes playing outside before the World Series was to begin. Neglecting my chores for too long I was called into the house to unload the dishwasher before the start of the game. Making a snap decision on how to expedite the process I opened up every cabinet we had that housed our dishes, glasses, and the like so that I might speed through the chore and get back outside. At 5:03pm this was a great idea, but one minute later when the 7.0 Earthquake now known as the Loma Prieta Quake hit the plan showed its obvious flaws. For 15 seconds my whole world rolled and rumbled as plates, glasses, and the like rained down upon me breaking over my head, arms and hands. When the shaking stopped & I had the wherewithal to look around at the sea of broken dishes and shake the glass from my hair, I noticed my hand was bleeding. There in the flesh between the thumb and the finger was a small but pretty good cut. It bled some but nothing a wad of paper towels and a little water couldn’t took care of it. My hand was bleeding - it was minor - a bookcase fell over - not a big deal. I thought that was it. It was only then that I turned on the TV and came face to face with the collapsed bridges, the crushed cars, the sink holes, the broken buildings & pain. Trying to wrap my then 11 year old mind around the destruction that I saw unfolding on the TV screen I wondered how my toppled bookcase and small cut could be my shared experience with those who lost everything. How was it that I shared in this experience with those who were trapped on the bridge or buried in buildings when I have only this small scar? Standing there watching TV, struggling with what I was witnessing, I saw men and women, some cut just like me, running not from the rubble but into it. They pulled people from their cars, they helped put out fires, they drove people to the hospital, and when they had no car they carried those far more injured then themselves to a place of safety and care.
20 years later seeing the same events play out in Haiti, I see the injured, the suffering themselves carrying those who cannot walk, liberating those who are trapped, fighting for those who cannot lift their own heads. Seeing these men and women, I am reminded of the story of the friends who carry the paralyzed man to see Jesus. They carried their friend when he could not walk. It is our job to now carry, to support, to liberate those who are trapped, injured and suffering. It is our job to carry the load so that we may rejoice when the whole Body is at peace, free to live into the call set upon our hearts, and free to be the children of God, the Body of Christ unified in the Spirit.
Let us all work to end suffering in our time. AMEN
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Preaching this Sunday
A pastor friend of mine told me that Sundays like last week's were those sermons that he "loved/hated to preach." The Haitian Earthquake was only a few days old, the world is horrified at the sights emerging from the television and on Sunday people are going to show up to a place where we talk about hope, peace, trust in God. I can understand his comment a little more now as I engage my text for this Sunday: I Corinthians12:12-31a
Paul writes to the church at Corinth regarding the gifts God gives to each of us for the betterment of God's people and church as different parts of the same body. Hands and Feet, very different in make up and utility, are all part of a body that requires the full participation of all the "parts" (re. gifts God gives) in order for it to work the way that it should. What strikes me about this is what Paul writes towards the end of this discussion: "If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it."
This short verse has captured me. Paul tells a church that wants to rank the gifts of God that harmony in the sharing of all of God's gifts is what ultimately produces life & when some gifts are disregarded because they are seen to be lesser, or when the people that posses them are seen to be lesser the body suffers. Like an athlete playing with an ankle injury - the whole body of Christ suffers when those who God bestows cannot exercise their gifts.
Our brothers and sisters in Haiti are suffering with a destruction very unfamiliar to us. Because they suffer we too suffer. Because they do not have peace, we do not have peace. This is the connective tissue of our faith.
Hope to see you Sunday!
Paul writes to the church at Corinth regarding the gifts God gives to each of us for the betterment of God's people and church as different parts of the same body. Hands and Feet, very different in make up and utility, are all part of a body that requires the full participation of all the "parts" (re. gifts God gives) in order for it to work the way that it should. What strikes me about this is what Paul writes towards the end of this discussion: "If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it."
This short verse has captured me. Paul tells a church that wants to rank the gifts of God that harmony in the sharing of all of God's gifts is what ultimately produces life & when some gifts are disregarded because they are seen to be lesser, or when the people that posses them are seen to be lesser the body suffers. Like an athlete playing with an ankle injury - the whole body of Christ suffers when those who God bestows cannot exercise their gifts.
Our brothers and sisters in Haiti are suffering with a destruction very unfamiliar to us. Because they suffer we too suffer. Because they do not have peace, we do not have peace. This is the connective tissue of our faith.
Hope to see you Sunday!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Responding to the Haiti Earthquake
No doubt many of you have begun to see photos coming out of Haiti detailing some of the devastation and immense loss. Photos of the Presidential Palace, Hospitals, homes and businesses have now flooded the media outlets and with each new glimpse we read pain on the faces of our Haitian brothers and sisters.While nations, relief agencies, independent business and others have now begun pledging support to the people and land of Haiti, it is often hard to imagine ways people like you and me can help in the Haitian recovery effort. Our first step is prayer. If you find yourself without words I invite you to consider this prayer which has been adapted from the Presbyterian Church's Book of Common Worship:
God of compassion please watch over the people of Haiti, and weave out of these terrible happenings wonders of goodness and grace. Surround those who have been affected by tragedy with a sense of your present love, and hold them in faith. Though they are lost in grief, may they find you and be comforted. Guide us as a church to find ways of providing assistance that heal wounds and provide hope. Help us to remember that when one of your children suffers we all suffer; through Jesus Christ who was dead,
but lives and rules this world with you. Amen.
but lives and rules this world with you. Amen.
If you feel compelled to make monetary assistance part of your response I would encourage you to visit the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance's Website site. Here you can find an update on the earthquake, the ways you can respond with assistance, and a method to make a contribution to the PCUSA's releif efforts. With reports of scam charities being reported daily, we have to be extra cautious in the way in which we give. It is important to note that the PCUSA's Extra Commitment Donation System is easy to use, totally honest and scam free. If you would rather not donate online there is a phone number to call as well.
I hope that you will continue to pray for the people of Haiti & all those who will travel there for releif. In this group is Mark Hare & his family. Mark is a member of the Presbytery of Scioto Valley and has spoken here at Boulevard recently. Mark and his family have lived in Haiti for sometime where he is working in sustainability and farming. To learn more about Mark and his work please visit his page by clicking here.
I hope that you will continue to pray for the people of Haiti & all those who will travel there for releif. In this group is Mark Hare & his family. Mark is a member of the Presbytery of Scioto Valley and has spoken here at Boulevard recently. Mark and his family have lived in Haiti for sometime where he is working in sustainability and farming. To learn more about Mark and his work please visit his page by clicking here.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
The 1st & Last Blog for a While
Happy New Year!
I am going to be on blogging shut-down for a week while I am out on vacation so please do not think I have abandoned it.
I hope that you holidays were great and that you have been enjoying 2010 in its infancy.
Peace,
Brett
I am going to be on blogging shut-down for a week while I am out on vacation so please do not think I have abandoned it.
I hope that you holidays were great and that you have been enjoying 2010 in its infancy.
Peace,
Brett
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Christmas Eve
I once wrote in a Facebook update: "looks like I am working another Christmas Eve this year." One of my wife's friends replied to my update with "My pastor growing up worked every Christmas Eve. Don't they teach you that in Seminary?" Not able to control myself I replied, "Not in any class I took."Being a Pastor you learn quickly that you have a different relationship with traditional Christian holidays like Christmas & Easter than some other folks. Taking Christmas Eve & Christmas off was always second nature & as a student the winter vacations made spending time as a family easy if not expected. Yet as my student days have faded away and I am "pastoring", being home for Christmas is indeed only happening in my dreams. My brother, sister-in-law and father are spending the holiday together in Oklahoma (where my brother lives), my mother is spending Christmas with her husband in California, and my wife and I are here in Ohio. Family spread far and wide plus Clergy will always equal separation for Christmas Eve. This is one of the lessons you learn early (some of my friends in seminary were required to be at their internship congregations for Christmas Eve) and though I still get the odd question here and there about my plans for Christmas Eve, most everyone knows that Christmas Eve is a working day for your local Pastor.
I don't want to give you the impression that I resent being away from my family during the holidays. Being able to serve this congregation & community here at Boulevard is a privilege that I am honored to have. Other than a brief foray into wanting to be a Dentist, I have always wanted to be a Pastor and now that I am able to help celebrate the birth of Christ with my church family I feel blessed that it was seen fit for me to answer God's Call into ministry.
Christmas Eve & Easter illustrate something that my sarcastic assertion on Facebook might obscure: following your Call, your dreams means that there will be sacrifice. Like my brother, a pilot in the US Air Force who has missed all but one of his anniversaries, my wedding, and other milestone events, it takes sacrifice in order to follow the call/dream that God places upon each of us. I know deep inside that he would have loved to been at my wedding & certainly his anniversaries yet we are all happy to go without his presence because the US Air Force with all their demands and requirements allows him to do what he wants to do more than anything else: fly.
(By the way, the photo is of my brother's plane, a C-17 Globemaster. This is the only photo the family has of him flying. The photo appeared on Stars and Stripes website.)
Like my brother who flies, or my many pastor friends, the things that we feel called to do will require something from us. For some it is their free time, for others it will be being home for the holidays, and for others they give up more than many of us could imagine. At the end of the day we all do so willingly, and thank God for the support of our loved ones, so that we can be the people we were created to be.
So to Mom, Dad, Reese & Laura, I, once again, miss you this Christmas Holiday but thank you for your support as I follow my call. Merry Christmas!
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