Turn in Here

Scripture Lessons: Ephesians 5: 15-20 and Proverbs 9: 1-6 Sermon Title: Turn in Here Preached on August 19, 2018 Zoey Brogan just read us a beautiful passage from the book of Proverbs, and it was right to have a female reader for this passage, because it’s Woman Wisdom calling us to come to her for insight. And I say us – because that’s who she’s talking to. Not anyone else; not your neighbor or your sister’s husband – she’s talking to you and me. Knowing that to be the case, there’s a difference then between the way we read Proverbs and the way we might be tempted to read a book of Law like Deuteronomy or a letter from Paul. It’s possible to read either and assume that their instruction isn’t really for us, but someone else, like drunkards or adulterers, maybe. Sometimes that may be the case, but we’re wasting our time reading Proverbs without ourselves in mind, because none of us are so wise that we don’t need to seek out Wisdom’s help. Let me give you an example of what I mean. With another shark movie in the theaters, I made an interesting discovery just this week: according to a recent study, on average there are six shark related deaths each year. That’s tragic, of course, but there are over 2,900 hippopotamus related deaths each year. Think of that for just a minute. Think of that disparity, and yet there was Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3. Plus, Sharknado, now the new Megalodon is the top grossing movie in theaters, but can you think of one horror movie involving a hippopotamus? When I think of a hippopotamus, I think of the Ann Murray record my mom used to play for me: There’s a Hippo in My Tub. What’s wrong with Ann Murray giving kids this horrible image? Why was she singing this horrible song? She’d never sing about a great white shark in her tub, would she? And yet consider the numbers. Consider for just a moment how much more afraid a rational person should be of a hippopotamus than a shark. But here’s the problem – we aren’t rational. And we resist change, even when we know we’re being irrational. I’m thankful for work done by one member of our church, David Waldrep, who’s lobbied to get some legislation through the State House so that driving while texting is now against the law. That will go a long way, but we should know better than to text and drive all on our own. However, we aren’t rational, and we resist change. We will all fight to keep things as they are, even if doing things the way we always have is killing us. Eating at Brandi’s Famous Hot Dogs isn’t doing anything for my physique, but I can’t stop going there, can I? Even if I know better I don’t necessarily do better, so Woman Wisdom calls us – calls all of us - to “Turn in here.” Zoey Brogan read it beautifully: Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars. She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table. Why? Because she invites us to come and eat with her. To lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight. That sounds great – but it requires changing our ways and admitting that she’s talking to us. Some of our habits are so ingrained, we don’t even see them. And if you don’t believe you have any, then tell me why you’re sitting in the same pew that you always sit in this morning. Wisdom is calling you and me – and according to the book of Proverbs, with wisdom we will grow in knowledge and understanding. With wisdom we will be saved from the way of evil. But just as the first step in education is admitting what we don’t know, just as the first step towards forgiveness is confessing that we’re not perfect, so wisdom begins when we lean not on our own knowledge or insight. You know that one – Cheryl Reeve’s grandmother quoted it all the time and maybe yours did too from the King James Version: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. I had to learn that one the hard way. In 9th grade at Marietta High School, I failed Spanish I. That’s not something that I’m proud of, but it’s true. And that’s what happens when you don’t pay attention in class or do any of the homework. In 10th grade I took it again, and I remember my teacher, Senora Smitherman, telling me that the difference between the F that I made the first time and the A that I made in her class, was that in her class I was always the first to ask a question. Wisdom calls – “turn in here!” but too often we keep going, either unwilling to accept her help, or convinced that she’s not talking to us and that we’re doing just fine on our own – either way, in place of wisdom we make the fools choice to go on leaning on our own limited understanding. But in Ephesians we read: “Be careful then how you live, not as unwise people but as wise, making the most of the time, because the days are evil. So, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.” How important these words are – because it is so easy to allow our days to pass by without thinking about what we’re doing. A friend of mine once scolded his retired father for taking 2 hours to polish his shoes: “Dad, why is that taking you so long. I polish mine in 15 minutes.” His wise old father responded, “24 hours in a day son, got to fill it with something.” But what? It creeps in so innocently. Ballet lessons on Monday. Nothing wrong with that. Tae Kwan Do on Tuesdays. That’s good too. Then Church on Wednesday. Daddy works late on Thursdays. Mom was invited to go out with a group on Friday. Saturday there are soccer games. Sunday used to be a day that no one dared touch, but not anymore. And listen – I like to have things to do and I love being able to run to Home Depot on a Sunday afternoon as much as the next guy, but if we let all these keep going, if we just go with the flow of the 21st Century accepting the norms of our consumer culture, we’re going to catch ourselves coming and going. So, Wisdom calls us: “Turn in here!” Come and eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Lay aside immaturity and the desire to fit in with the craziness that everyone is calling normal and walk in the way of insight. I need to listen to her – because I find myself saying: “I just have too much going on.” But guess who can stop it? Guess who can change it? All any of us has to do is veer off the well warn road of doing things the way we always have and turn in to the way of wisdom. You see, we have to listen to her, because we’re not rational beings. We’ll self-destruct left to our own devices. We’re busy being scared of sharks, but you know the animal that kills more people per year than any other? The mosquito that flies in and out of our backyards every moment of every day. We know to be cautious of the big scary things, but what if it’s our normal life that’s killing us? What if it’s our daily routine that needs to change? Turn in here! She says – because this road that we are on, if we don’t turn off, what’s going to happen? We are the most medicated country in the world. Our bodies and our souls hurt. For some of us, it’s as though we know something’s wrong – but it’s just so easy to keep going, so we do. The other option comes in Wisdom’s voice crying out: “turn in here”. Look to her for answers. Today we gave 3rd graders their very own Bibles, because as a Christian Church, we believe that within the pages of Scripture are words of guidance and words of hope in a world full of words that should not be trusted. For a real-life example of words that cannot be trusted – you may have received an email yesterday from me, requesting that you help me out with a favor. All I needed, according to this email scam, was a few gift cards for a couple hundred dollars. I was asking you to buy them and send them to me. It was all very convincing, especially because the grammar and spelling in these emails made me sound like English was my second language. I apologize for this email – I didn’t send it and we’ve taken steps to make it stop, but this email does help to illustrate my point. We live in a crazy world where you can’t even trust the words of an email that looks like it was sent from your pastor. So, don’t take my word for it. Don’t take Hollywood’s word for it – they’ll brainwash you. Don’t take Washington’s word for it. Don’t take Wall Street’s word for it – because among all the changing voices of this present evil age only one voice can lead you to new life. Wisdom is calling. Rather than accept the patterns that our culture calls normal, and rather than accept the lies told that pass for truth, let us be about reading and studying the words of Scripture. And listening to Wisdom always. Amen.

Under the Broom Tree

Scripture Lessons: Ephesians 4: 25 – 5: 2 and 1st Kings 19: 1-18 Sermon Title: Under the Broom Tree Preached on August 12, 2018 My Junior or Senior Year of High School I was on the Marietta High School baseball team. That’s not to say that I played baseball. I was on the team, but I didn’t play a whole lot. My Dad went to most all of the games anyway, and one game I got to play a lot. I was three for three. I got a hit every at bat and drove in three or four runs. There was a short write up in the paper because I hit a single that drove in two runs which gave us the lead. I was so proud of that newspaper clipping that appeared in the Marietta Daily Journal that I only just recently stopped caring it around in my wallet. After the game my Dad wanted to celebrate by taking me out to a steak dinner, and since it was an evening game, the only place still open and serving steak by the time the game ended was the Waffle House. So, we went, and he bought me a T-bone, and I’ll never forget it. It was a victory feast – and I’ll never forget it because not every meal is like that. We were once invited to what was meant to be a campaign victory party. A friend was running for public office, and we arrived at the venue as the results were just starting to come in, only the numbers were going in the wrong direction. This friend who was expected to win in a landslide ended up losing the election, and when he finally showed up, we could tell he didn’t want to be there. No one felt like eating any of the food. No toasts were given. We drank some, but it wasn’t Champaign, because the character of the party wasn’t victory but defeat. When I compare these two memories – my victory dinner at the Waffle House and the campaign party that occurred after my friends defeat, I realize, that it’s not just the presence of food that inspires our appetite. It’s whether or not we feel like we deserve to eat what’s been prepared. A victory feast is one thing. The kind of meal we’ve just read about in our 2nd Scripture Lesson is another. This meal occurs right in the middle of major events you may know about. Queen Jezebel had brought priests from her homeland into the Nation of Israel – they were called the Priests of Baal, and after watching his brothers and sisters adopt this pagan religion, the Prophet Elijah stood up and challenged the Priests of Baal to a great contest – two bulls on two alters – the Priests of Baal called on their god to rain down fire on the alter and Elijah did the same. The god who answered by fire would be named the true god of Israel. It's hard when you get punished for doing the right thing, but that’s pretty much what happened. While Elijah was faithful, and while the fire of the Lord fell on his sacrifice, burning it up and turning back the hearts of those in Israel who saw, Queen Jezebel wasn’t giving up that easy. Rather than repent like the others, Queen Jezebel wanted Elijah dead, so fleeing from her wrath the prophet ran. That’s the background for our 2nd Scripture Lesson. Finally exhausted he sat down under a solitary broom tree and asked that he might die saying: “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” On the one hand, knowing what’s just happened, it doesn’t make any sense for him to say something like that. For generations and generations, we’ve been telling the story of the Prophet Elijah who called down the Lord’s fire from heaven to defeat the prophets of Baal. Problem is, from what we’ve read this morning you can tell that from Elijah’s point of view nothing really changed. When Elijah says – “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors,” he means that while he was on the winning side of one contest, he’s lost the war. While he was faithful, he still considers himself a failure, for Queen Jezebel is still in power. She still commands the soldiers who are hunting him down. And if she is still in power with such authority, then while he fought the good fight, while he ran his race, there’s nothing to keep her from doubling the number of Baal’s prophets and erasing this one victory from the pages of Israel’s history. Do you know what that feels like? To have given your very best, and to have come out feeling like it was all for nothing. To have done the right thing – stood with integrity – only to be silenced. To have exercised more and eaten less, but when you get up on the scale you’re two pounds more than you were before. We tell our kids to try out for the team, but to do so they have to risk something – gather up the courage to put themselves out there – and still they may go to the bulletin board to see that their name’s not on the list. Should that happen, and they’re brave enough to tell you, you better be ready to take them out to ice cream. But remember - it’s hard to enjoy the party if you lost the election. It’s even hard to know what to do as people gather around to say, “You gave it your best. We’re still proud,” because if you’ve given it your all and still came up wanting, what you really want to do is lay down under a broom tree and die. I remember a friend in college. He was a great basketball player, so his team passed him the ball as the time ran out on the clock. They were down by one – if he made the shot they’d win the game, so he took the shot and missed it. After the game, while he was walking off the court, his girlfriend walked up with a glass of water and he knocked it out of her hand. Why? Because love is a hard thing to accept if you don’t feel like you are worthy of it. “It is enough, now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my ancestors.” That’s what he said. That’s how he felt – and I’ve been under that broom tree too. You know I’m the one who usually writes the Prayer of Confession in your bulletin. Other members of the church staff fix the grammar and polish it up; but I can write these things week after week without too much trouble because getting in touch with my sin is so easy – it’s ever before me - all I have to do is write it down. You know what’s harder for me to do? Accept the words from the Assurance of Forgiveness. I have a good friend who told me that the Assurance of Forgiveness is the hardest part of the worship service for him to believe – and think of that in relation to all the other claims we make in here: That God created the heavens and the earth – for him that’s no problem. That He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary – done. That the third day He rose again from the dead and ascended into heaven – got it. But that despite all the wars I’ve fought and been defeated. That despite the races I’ve run and lost. That even as God knows my inmost parts – the secrets I can’t tell – and the regrets I can’t help but remember – how could God love me still? Thinking those kind of thoughts, Elijah lay down under the broom tree and fell asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat,” though don’t you know Elijah wanted to knock that jar of water out of the angel’s hand. But instead, he ate and drank, because God doesn’t care about winning or losing so much as he cares about feeding his children. There’s a preacher up in New York City named Tim Keller and the great Libba Schell sent me a quote of his last Thursday: To be loved but not known is comforting, but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.” At the end of her email Libba also reminded me how in trivia the other night I thought the longest book in the Bible was Numbers and not Psalms – but that proves the point, right? What is love but to know, that win or lose, I’m still loved? There’s a hymn that says it this way: No more a stranger, or a guest, but like a child at home. And when God came to earth in human form, Scripture tells us that God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, not that the world would be condemned by him but that all might have life in his name – so he didn’t go around wagging his finger and adding to our shame. No! He called a bunch of sinners to his table and he washed their feet and fed them. Did they deserve it? Did they feel like they belonged? Was it a steak dinner at the Waffle House victory feast? No – it was a “I’m your father and you’re my son and I am thankful to sit down at any table with you any time, whether you’re on Cloud 9 or walking through the valley of the shadow of death.” That’s the story of God as told in Scripture. That’s the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But that’s not always easy to accept, nor is it what we always hear. Back in Tennessee there was a church with a billboard out front. Every year, about this time, when it was so hot you couldn’t go outside they’d put out on that billboard: “Sinner, you think it’s hot now?” The problem with that kind of message is that while it’s meant to scare you into the church, it just convinces a whole bunch of people that they don’t belong and that they never will. So, the admonition from Ephesians is this: “Be imitators of God.” Go out into the world and show those who think that their worth hangs in the balance, that they’re beautiful. Go and tell the frustrated, that they’re enough. Go and tell that mother who’s just barely holding it together that everything is going to be OK – and maybe she won’t want to hear it but tell her anyway. This morning my sermon wouldn’t print. You know that feeling? You get up from your desk and walk over to look at the printer. That didn’t do anything, so I had to take my laptop into the sanctuary and put it right on the pulpit. I felt so stupid. But you know what helped? Looking in my wallet at the two little notes that replaced my old newspaper clipping. Hearing the Assurance of Forgiveness spoken by Rev. Lisa Majores. Being greeted with the Peace of Christ by Errol and Beth and Cal. And when Katherine Harrison walked out of the Sanctuary at the end of the service, she winked at me. Be imitators of the God of grace, by giving the grace that he has given you. And thank you for giving that grace to me. Amen.

Food for the Journey

Scripture Lessons: Ephesians 4: 1-16 and Exodus 16: 2-4 and 9-15 Sermon Title: Food for the Journey Preached on August 5, 2018 Sara and I have been watching a TV show called Suits. It’s sort of like a PG version of Mad Men if you saw that one, except Suits is set in contemporary New York and the main characters all work at a law firm instead of an advertising agency. The male main characters wear these really sharp tailored suits – which is why the show is called Suits I guess – and it’s really fast paced and exciting. The whole show is these two guys, Harvey Specter and Mike Ross – they storm into meetings and courtrooms, corner bad guys through verbal acrobatics, then take beautiful women out to dinner. It’s exactly like being an attorney in real life. Maybe some attorneys in the room can correct this misconception. I’ve heard that the real life of an attorney goes at a slower pace, and we all know that Hollywood tends to skip the boring parts. Which is probably why I decided in 3rd grade, that when I grew up I’d be an archeologist, right after seeing Indiana Jones. So, my Mom signed me up for an archelogy camp, but all we did was sift through dirt and brush off rocks with a paint brush – it wasn’t anything like the movie. It's a hard reality to accept that most of the time real life moves more slowly than it does on TV or in movies – especially when it comes to people accepting change. They say that in every good story, something has to change – a person, an institution, a change of heart – and in the entertainment industries, that change happens in the course of a few hundred pages of a book, in the 30 minutes of a TV show, or in the 2 hours of a movie, while real-life change often takes much longer. I remember wondering why the Israelites wandered through the desert for 40 years. It doesn’t seem like it should take that long to go from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the promised land, and scholars have even said that it should have only taken 11 days to walk from Egypt to Israel. But that’s the thing about real change. Real change often doesn’t happen that fast. Around this church, just as it is in the human heart, change can take a while. Like how we have two buses here at the church. We refer to them as the old bus and the new bus, only the new bus is now more than 20 years old. I guess we’re still getting used to it. You see, change doesn’t always happen quickly. You can’t always make it from Egypt to Israel in 11 days, because if we’re still referring to it as the New Bus 20 years later, then making a big change, like going from slavery to freedom, well, if you can do that in 40 years you’re making pretty good time. Change is often slow. Probably because a lot of people don’t like it. You heard them: “The Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. [They] said to them, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread.” Now imagine being one of those Israelites and complaining to Moses asking: “Why did you save us from slavery. It wasn’t that bad.” This is the craziest thing to say, but it’s exactly how people are. This is exactly how it really happens. Probably the scariest moment of my life was in labor and delivery. All at once my pregnant wife was pulled out by a crowd of worried faces and taken to the operating room. I was left standing there wondering if I was about to lose Sara and our new baby. I remember having no idea where to go or what to do – just being more scared than I’d ever been before or since. Thanks be to God, everything turned out fine. Sara had an emergency C-section that resulted in a healthy baby and a healthy mother, and while I was so thankful, about a year later, while I’m still recovering from the trauma, Sara wants to talk about having another baby. “Why, Sara, would you even think of returning to the flesh pots of Egypt? Don’t you remember what it was really like?” Of course not, because if mothers remembered the trauma of childbirth no one here would have any siblings. And if human beings remembered accurately the traumatic circumstances they’d been delivered from they’d never return – but according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 5 out of 6 state prisoners were arrested within 9 years of their release. 5 out of 6! It’s hard to imagine anyone saying: “It wasn’t so bad in prison. Three meals a day. A nice jump suit.” No one really says that. But can they imagine a better future – is anyone leading them to it? Or do they get halfway and decide to turn back around to what they know? Don’t be fooled - the journey to freedom is a long one, and part of the reason it gets longer is because of the way our memory works. While on the other hand, the movies go from the Emancipation Proclamation straight to total and complete equality. In real life it’s taking so much longer, and one reason it’s taking so long is because so many are trying to go back to where they were before. Just look at the world today with all its racial problems and listen to what some people are calling for – listen to how they remember where we’ve been. We’re just like the Israelites, because we get halfway there, and we want to turn around, then we look for someone to blame. You heard it: “The Israelites said to [Moses and Aaron], “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” That’s normal enough too. You know what churches do when they hit hard times – get a new pastor. What parents do when concerned over their children’s education – blame the teachers. And what do countries do in times of crisis? People chant: drain the swamp. But the most dangerous kind of leader to call on when a church, a school system, or a nation has hit hard times is the kind who says: “I can save you – just leave it to me”. Great leaders don’t fall into this trap. The people blamed Moses, but he didn’t shoulder all the blame, nor did he make promises he couldn’t deliver on. That’s because real leaders in times of crisis call on people to stand up on their own two feet by saying things like: “It’s not what your country can do for you, it’s what you can do for your country.” You remember that? Real leadership on the most challenging journeys of life looks like what we saw in our first Scripture Lesson from the book of Ephesians where Paul begs each Christian to “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” “Each of us” he wrote, “Each of us was given grace,” and the role of the ones who spend all their time talking – the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors – it’s our job “to equip [you] the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” So, while I look at the portraits of the great pastors who have served our church with awe and reverence, who is it that teaches our children to sing: “Jesus loves me this I know”? We commissioned those teachers this morning and celebrate their ministry, because they are leading a life worthy of the calling to which they have been called – they are making our church stronger, not waiting for someone else to do it for them. And to broaden it beyond teachers – when it’s gets hot in here, who fixes the air conditioner? Not me. Then this morning when I walked into the church the first person I saw was our Security Associate, Antonio Evans, who was wearing a hairnet. “Antonio – what are you doing wearing a hairnet?” I asked. He said, “I’m making coffee, cooking a quiche – I’m being the church.” Isn’t that the truth? We are on a journey to the Promised Land and we all have a job to do that helps to get us there. And even if along the way from time to time we try to turn around to go back to where we’ve been, even if along the way from time to time we look for someone to blame or for someone to save us, the Lord is all the while providing us food for the journey that we have the strength to press on. Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, “Draw near to the Lord.’” And in the evening quails came up and covered the camp; and in the morning there was a layer of dew around the camp. When the layer of dew lifted, there on the surface of the wilderness was a fine flaky substance, as fine as frost on the ground. Moses said to them, “It is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat.” Life is full of these difficult journeys of change – and some of them drag us onward kicking and screaming. Our only choice is whether or not we’ll resist it, and our only hope is finding a way to see God at work in it. Now look around today. It’s in moments like this one, it’s on days like today when we hear again that great call to keep going, to run our race, and it’s on days like today that we see in this bread and cup prepared for us the reminder that even when we don’t want to go one step further, he is with us still, calling us onward and towards the goal. Amen.