Better Than We Found It

Scripture Lessons: 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8 and Deuteronomy 34: 1-12 Sermon Title: But You Shall Not Cross Over There Preached on 10/25/2020 What do you think was going through his mind up on Mount Nebo? What do you think Moses thought as the Lord showed him the whole land, the great plains, palm trees, and the flowing river Jordan? It was that land flowing with milk and honey which he had been looking forward to seeing. Up on the mountain he looked over into it. Surely it was with tears in his eyes that he heard the Lord saying, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” This is what you’ve been dreaming of. This is what you’ve been looking forward to. This is the vision that’s been keeping you going. Now you see it, “But you shall not cross over there.” What did that feel like? The feeling that comes to mind from my personal experience, albeit incredibly minor in comparison, is what I felt at the end of my hardest week as a camp counselor. I was a camp counselor for one summer up at Camp Cherokee on Lake Allatoona. My sister still loves that place, maybe more than any other place on earth, but for me, I was always happy to be there while also being happy to go back home once each session was over. That was especially true after the hardest session of the summer. This one week was with middle schoolers. Middle Schoolers are hard enough, but these were “serious about camping Middle Schoolers,” who actually chose to sleep in tents for the whole week, away from running water and electricity. We were a mile or so away from the main camp. We cooked all our own food. We lived in the wild, and when it was finally over, I was ready to go home. So ready that I could taste it. I sat down in my car with such relief at the thoughts of a hot shower and my own bed, only my car wouldn’t start. Do you know that feeling? You say to yourself, “It’s finally over,” but fate or bad luck or God says, “No, it’s not.” Why does that happen? What are we supposed to learn from something like that? Doesn’t it make it easier to do hard things if there is a promise of receiving a blessing in the end? What changes in your life if you accept the truth that the outcome is not guaranteed? Sometimes we act as though it were. Have you ever worked overtime in expectation of a promotion that never came? Are you pushing through this time of quarantine with the hope that a vaccine will be here in March? Guess what, there’s no guarantee. So, we must ask: Had Moses known he would never cross over into the Promised Land would he still have left Egypt? Which is sort of like asking, “Would you have moved to New Zealand back in April if you knew it was going to take us so long to get our act together?” Or thinking of not our present, but our history, “What was going on in the mind of the first 12 members of First Presbyterian Church who started meeting in an old log house in November of 1835?” Would they have left their established homes and already built churches to break ground right here had they known what it was really going to be like? Had someone told them about raids, droughts, and dysentery would they have laid the foundation that we now stand on? They were but four families who started this church: Mayes, Simpson, Hamilton, and Lemon. Leonard Simpson was one of our two first elders. He also ran the local tavern, and he died in 1856 at the age of eighty-seven, which gave him about three years to worship in the brick sanctuary that wouldn’t have been there without him. Just three years to sit in such a beautiful place for worship, a sanctuary built to seat 400 by a congregation that numbered 96 at the time. The land on which it was built was donated by Rev. John Jones, their preacher. Only it wasn’t finished until after his resignation. What was that like? What is it like to work so hard for something, yet never see it come to full bloom? What is it like to look forward to something that you never see materialize? What is it like to make sacrifices, not for yourself and your immediate gratification, but for those who come along later, maybe long after your lifetime? God’s story is a long one, but we are like grass. That’s a hard truth to accept. A friend from Tennessee, Neeley King, wrote me a line she read or heard in a sermon, or she’s so witty she probably came up with it herself: We live in a microwave society, but we have a crockpot God. That’s a hard truth to live with, maybe especially for her husband John, who used to let me know that the service was running too long by putting down his hymnal, waving his arms, and pointing to his wristwatch from his pew in the back. Like him we’re an impatient people. Scripture calls us to be patient all the time, but we can do all our Christmas shopping on-line and it will be on our doorsteps by the end of the week. People say, “Rome wasn’t built in a day,” but ask a contractor how many customers patiently wait for their renovation to be complete. The truth about humanity is that we want it now. We love immediate gratification, but so much of what we have, so many of the gifts we enjoy, were not thrown together in a moment or even a lifetime but passed down through the generations. Moses was not permitted to cross over, but when he died, generation after generation has inherited his blessing. So, “The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days.” If you can see today’s worship bulletin, that’s what’s painted on the cover. For thirty days the Israelites wept for Moses because he had brought them so far and had given them so much, yet he died before his feet could touch the Promised Land. Does that make you sad? It does me, but not if I think about it this way: a friend of mine named Roben Mounger has a rug in her house. Her grandmother started it for her when she was just a little girl. She wanted it to be in her granddaughter’s home, when she grew up, which must have seemed to little Roben, at the time, as a future so far away that it would never get here. She was just a child, and what is having her own house to a little girl other than a far-off dream? Christmas takes forever to get here when you’re young. When you’re young you’re so short-sighted that you turn a crank to make ice-cream, but it feels like ice cream might never happen. Still, it does happen, and in Roben’s house is the rug her grandmother made her. Her grandmother died before she ever saw it in there, but is a piece of her grandmother not with her always? Our daughter Lily is named after my grandmother. My paternal grandmother painted with oils, and still, whenever I smell them it’s like I’m in her house again. Some of her artwork hangs in our house, and I point them out to Lily, saying, “Your great-grandmother who you’re named after, painted that, and she would have loved you.” What does it mean to pass something like that down? What does it mean to invest in something so far into the future? I tell you, it’s this great act of faithful giving that helps us to remember that there will be a future. This year we’re completing the final phases of that capital campaign you funded two years ago. We’re going to expand the playground on Church Street. Do you know the one I’m talking about? Do you know how good it is to think about expanding that playground? Do you know how good it makes me feel to think about kids playing on it, without having to wear facemasks. Someday it will happen. Someday it’s going to be better than it is right now. Someday we’re going to look back on this moment, and we’ll tell those who can’t remember what it was like, “Yes, we really did have to wear masks. Yes, the restaurants could only do take out. Yes, the toilet paper really was all gone. Yes, we were scared, but we made it. We made it. And now, look where we are.” Moses knew where he was going, and even though he never reached it himself, I know that he died a happy man, because a congregation of 96 people built a Sanctuary that can now seat 400. Four families were so determined to have a Presbyterian Church in Marietta, GA that now we have this place and each other. Just the idea that our children might have a better life fills me with so much joy I can’t help but smile, because while I might not step into the future with them, knowing they will have a better future gives me hope. What we do today ensures that this church will be an institution which will outlive us all, and that won’t be true for all churches. Some have said that one in five will close during this pandemic, but I know that from this pulpit, the Gospel will be proclaimed by preachers who aren’t even born yet. And that from their heavenly home, the generations who came before us will rejoice knowing that this church which they invested in will be a home to their descendants in the faith, for while we are the stewards of this great legacy, we are building on what they started. I’m asking you to take your pledge card and to make an investment in the future. Why? So, we will make it another year? Sure. But more precisely, so we can pass the gift of this great place down to the coming generation, better than we found it, which is fitting, for it’s because of this place that we are better now than when He found us. Isn’t that right? Who was I when I wandered into this church as a 3rd grade kid? Who was I when I stacked bricks on a mission trip to Mexico as a high schooler? Tim Hammond, who was there on my first trip with our youth group, reminded me that inspired by our bad behavior, the van my friends and I rode in down to Mexico was nicknamed the Paddy Wagon by all the adult advisors. Well, I’ve gone from the Paddy Wagon to the Pulpit, and it’s because the Gospel I heard here has made me better than I was. How then can I not want to leave this place in better shape than I found it? We increased our pledge this year. Why? It’s because we’ve been blessed by this place, and the blessing of this place must be preserved for those kids who would be in the nursery. Will you help keep it going, for their children, and our children’s children? For I tell you that as this day turns into the next, and as the far-off tomorrow turns into the day after that, how we live now will resound through a future we’ll never set foot in. But they’ll remember the gift they received, and we will rest knowing we left this place better than we found it. Presbyterians are weird about money. We don’t like to talk about it, so I’m just going to say it as plainly as I can: Everything you have comes from God, and in Scripture we are called to give 10% of what we have away. Take your pledge card and invest a portion of what you have into this church and Her bright, ongoing future. Not only will this church be stronger and better for you having done so, but you will be stronger, better, and more hopeful for having done so. Amen.

In the Cleft of the Rock

Scripture Lessons: 1 Thessalonians 1: 1-10 and Exodus 33: 12-23 Sermon Title: In the Cleft of the Rock Preached on October 18, 2020 The Scripture Lessons you’ve just heard remind me of song we used to sing in Sunday School and then youth group. I feel sure you’re familiar with it. It’s based on Matthew chapter 7 and it goes like this: Seek ye first the kingdom of God, And his righteousness, And all these things shall be added unto you, Alleluia, alleluia. That’s the chorus. The verse I’m really thinking of after reading this Scripture Lesson from the book of Exodus is the second or third one: Ask and it shall be given unto you, Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you, Alleluia, alleluia. We used to sing that with Vivian Stephens, who died during this epidemic, and while we haven’t yet been able to remember her at a funeral, I’ll always remember her when I think of that song or the many others she taught us to sing. Seek ye First is what we called it, and it’s wonderful to sing in a round, yet the reason I think of it now is because it calls us never to settle, but to ask. That’s what Moses did. He dared ask to see God. That was a bold thing to do, especially when you think about how easy it is to settle. When I was a kid it was easy to settle, because we didn’t always know what else was out there. For example, every once in a while, back when we were kids, maybe once a month or so, my Mom wouldn’t be home for dinner because she’d be meeting with her book club. When that happened, my Father was in charge of feeding us supper, which made supper interesting. I don’t know what it meant in your family, but for my sister, brother, and me, our Father cooking supper meant that he’d drive us to Ingle’s grocery store on Powder Spring Road. Then he’d lead us to the sardines, where he’d then say, “Pick out whatever can you want!” Could we have asked for something else for supper? I don’t know. I never thought to ask. Could we have maybe asked that he take us out to our favorite Mexican restaurant, right across the street, or maybe even to Chucky Cheese where a kid can be a kid? I don’t know, because no one ever asked. We were offered sardines and we were thankful to have them. That sounds like the right attitude for children to have, doesn’t it? Have you ever wished that your children or grandchildren would just appreciate all that they have already? Have you ever avoided running into Target with them just because you don’t want to hear them asking for more? I do all the time, only Scripture keeps pushing us and them not to settle, but to ask. Ask and it shall be given unto you, Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you. Those are the words of Jesus, and more than that, all the really annoying people who won’t stop asking for what they want or can’t help but fight for what they believe in, rather than paint them as annoying, intitled, or ungrateful, Scripture remembers them as good examples of how we should all be. Think about it: There’s the Canaanite woman who won’t settle for the scraps that fall from the table, but boldly calls on Jesus to heal her daughter, and the Lord does. There’s the parable of the widow who returns, day after day, to the unjust judge until she receives justice. What does Jesus say about her? He said, “Will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night?” So now consider Moses, who says to God, “Show me your glory, I pray.” What a bold request. Have you ever asked God for something like that? Surely, I never have. I’ve never even had to audacity to expect to be treated like a human being when I call our internet company, much less, call on God for any more than I have already. Yet, consider the song: Ask and it shall be given unto you, Seek and ye shall find. Knock and the door shall be opened unto you, Don’t settle. Keep going. Keep asking. Keep pushing. We’re on our way to something more, so fight for it. That’s what it takes. According to legend, George Frederic Handel, who, Beethoven considered the greatest composer who ever lived, wrote his most famous piece, “Messiah,” in 24 days. After completing the most famous portion of “Messiah,” the “Hallelujah Chorus,” he is reported to have said to a servant, either, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God himself” or “I thought I saw the face of God.” Certainly, we never would have made it to the moon had humanity been satisfied just staring up at it. Presbyterian astronaut, John Glenn, gave reporters an idea of what it’s like in outer space, “To look out at this kind of creation and not believe in God is to me impossible.” What does it take then to catch a glimpse of the divine, as they did? What is required to see, if not God’s face, then a sliver of his glory? I tell you, first of all we are required to ask, though just that is hard for a lot of people to do. Sometimes I’ll meet with couples before they get married. Maybe she’ll tell me that he never considers her opinion. Then I’ll ask, “Does he know what your opinion is? Have you told him?” That’s a good place to start. Maybe he wouldn’t listen anyway, but that’s a good place to start, because talking with your mother about him probably isn’t going to change anything. I’ve been reading the paper a lot lately, and it has me thinking about how sometimes, it’s like we’re afraid to ask directly, that maybe we’re afraid to say what it is that we really want in the presence of those who might give it to us. An old newspaper man named Sam Kennedy, who ran the local paper back in Tennessee, once told me, “If you want to know the true nature of your community, always read the letters to the editor.” There I’ve been reading about all kinds of stuff. Lately, I’ve read about political yard signs getting stolen or vandalized, months ago it was frustration with the local schools not opening their classrooms for in-person learning. My general reflection based on many of these letters to the editor is that we are a society who has such trouble talking with people who think differently that we use forums like this one as a way to vent because we’re too scared to talk with each other face to face. Now, Dan Kirk never vents like that in his letters to the editor. I don’t know if you ever read what he writes, but you should. Interestingly, our own Dan Kirk just writes in to remind us to be grateful for how lucky we are, but that’s beside the point. By and large I believe we settle for venting to the newspaper when we could be speaking our concerns to the people who could do something about it. When I think of such behavior, I worry that we’re settling for ranting when we could be moving forward. We wind up feeling helpless and frustrated when we could be working for a brighter future. We grow used to yelling and finger-pointing and call it governance. We allow our neighbors to do as they please, even when it drives us crazy, because it’s easier to go back inside to watch TV rather than ask them to put on a mask, turn down their music, or just come over for dinner. Why do we go back to watching TV, why do we put our heads down minding our own business, when we could be asking for more? We’d never have gotten to the moon if we hadn’t learned to work together, and we’ll never make it to the Promised Land if we don’t start moving towards each other now. That’s why I think the most important quote of all when it comes to glimpsing the divine as Moses, Handel, or John Glenn did is that of Victor Hugo, the play write of Les Misérables, who is reported to have said, “to love another person is to see the face of God.” Maybe that’s the greatest frontier. Maybe that’s the place where so many of us end up settling for less. It’s so hard to love someone. It requires nearly everything of us. Think about Moses. He killed the Egyptian and lost his home in the palace. Why? Because he loved his people. He left his home in the wilderness to answer a call from God to set his people free. Why? Because he couldn’t bear the thought of their suffering. He faced Pharaoh with nothing more than a staff in his hand. He led them out of slavery and through the waters of the sea, just trusting that God would provide a way. They got hungry and he was bold to ask for food. They got thirsty and he was bold to ask for water. They kept complaining about him, and he was bold to ask God to love them anyway. Love kept pushing him to do more and to be more, and even though they were like five year old’s on a long road trip, even though every five minutes one had to stop and use the bath room. On this long road trip that lasted 40 long years, so long that even God had had enough, saying to Moses, “I will not go up among you [to the Promised Land], or I would consume you on the way, for you are a stiff-necked people.” Moses says to the Lord, “please, stay with us.” “And just let me see your glory.” You know what we settle for? Living in a country with people we don’t agree with. Getting along with neighbors who we can’t understand and who might be stealing our political yard signs. We settle for putting up with, tolerating, just getting through this election without ringing someone’s neck, but do you know what the Gospel demands of us? Love your neighbor as yourself. The time has come, to ask for more out of our country, who made it to the moon years ago, but today can’t seem to engage in civil discourse. The time has come to ask more from ourselves who can read about what’s happening all around the world, but don’t always know what’s happening across the street. The time has come for us to ask more of our neighbors, who may need to be reminded, that while we are free to do all kinds of things, we are never free to hate. With boldness, let us dare ask for more. In doing so, if we do so out of love, we’ll see the face of God.

The Golden Calf Takes and Takes and Takes

Scripture Lessons: Philippians 4: 1-9 and Exodus 32: 1-14 Sermon Title: The Golden Calf Takes and Takes and Takes Preached on: October 11, 2020 It’s really something what people will get into when left to their own devices, isn’t it? Every parent knows it. Every teacher knows it. Every dog owner knows it. Moses turns his back, and then, “But I’ve only been gone for a few minutes, and this is what you’ve done!” You can’t turn your back on people. You can’t turn your back on children, dogs, grown-ups, or anyone. That’s just the way that it is. So, I think glitter should be outlawed. Don’t you? Have you ever had that experience with glitter? If you don’t supervise children with glitter, you’ll find it in your underwear. I was standing around lacrosse practice yesterday and a mother told me that her daughter had emptied out a bottle of glitter and a bag of kitty-litter on their floor. She’ll be finding little surprises around her house years from now, because when people are left alone with glitter or anything else, you had better give them firm instructions or they’ll just start doing something, and that something is almost certainly not going to do them or you any long-term good. Left alone, we just get into too much trouble and we waste too much time. I saw the most effective advertising campaign that I’ve ever seen the other day. It’s for an app you can get on your phone called Dual lingo. It’s been helping me learn Spanish, but what got me was their slogan: “In 15 minutes a day you can learn a second language. What is 15 minutes of social media going to get you?” Not all of you spend time on social media. The main one if Facebook, but there are several tools for keeping up with your friends and spying on your children out there. They’re all a great way to share vacation photos, and they can be a great way for people to stay connected in this season of almost forced isolation, but they can also be a really big waste of time, or worse. Someone said, “I have an app on my phone that tells me which of my relatives are racist. It’s called Facebook.” That’s a funny joke because people post their opinions and their thoughts right there on Facebook for anyone to see, and some of their opinions and thoughts should never have seen the light of day. People need supervision. Moses shouldn’t have left them alone. Look at all the trouble they got into. When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make gods for us…for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” [So, then] Aaron said to them, “Take off your gold rings and bring them to me.” He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” This is the strangest thing in the world for people to do, but it’s what we all keep doing again and again and again. We run out of things to do so we get up to something, and that something is not necessarily good for us or anyone else. I’ve been reading a book by Bill Bryson about growing up in the 50’s. He wrote that television wasn’t any good back then. There might only be two or three channels, so he’d have to entertain himself. Long periods of the day were devoted to just seeing what would happen – what would happen if you pinched a match head while it was still hot or made a vile drink and took a sip of it or focused a white-hot beam of sunlight with a magnifying glass on your Uncle Dick’s bald spot while he was napping. Moses left the Israelites alone and so they find something to do. Likewise, with a few minutes to spare some of us scroll through social media on our phones, others start thinking about how nice it would be to get out on the lake in our own boat. Our minds wander, we get distracted, as my friend James Fleming always says: “there are 24 hours in a day and you have to fill them with something.” Only here’s the thing, what’s the return on how we are spending our time? How does scrolling through your friend’s vacation pictures make you feel after 15 minutes? Have you heard the expression: “The two happiest days for a boat owner are the day he buys it and the day he sells it”? We’re all looking for something to do. We all keep shopping for something. But what have we found? What does the Golden Calf give in return for our gold? That’s the question that must be asked, for on the other hand: God delivered the people from slavery in Egypt. He divided the sea so that they could walk through on dry land. When they were hungry, God provided them manna. Thirsty, God made water come out of a rock. As they looked for direction, God provided them with 10 Commandments, but what do they do when Moses turns his back for just a minute? Our God gives and gives and gives, but we wander away to spend our time doing what we shouldn’t. Knowing that’s just human nature I urge you to ask yourself, what is the return on all your hobbies and vices? For our God delivers, forgives, and fills the emptiness in our souls, but what about that vacation home? What about all those devices? Where are you putting your energy? On what are you spending your money? And are you getting a good return on your investment? Last week I heard Cassie’s sermon twice. I thought it was brilliant each time I heard it, especially this line: “from the laws we learn the character of the law maker,” and from the laws that God provided, from the 10 Commandments that Moses brought down from the mountain, we see that God is in a relationship with us so that we might thrive, prosper, and never again suffer under the weight of slavery to anything. Why then do we keep on bowing down before golden claves and new pharaohs, believing their empty promises and expecting them to deliver us when we already know who has set us free? It's a foolish thing to go looking for happiness in a boat. It’s a foolish thing to go looking for connection through social media. It’s a foolish thing to expect deliverance from a politician. But we keep doing it. We keep doing all of it, because when we’re left to our own devices, we do strange and foolish things. Glitter just gets all over the place. Or worse. In this consumer culture of ours people spend money that they don’t have. Why? Because someone told them that money would buy them happiness, and they believed it. In our celebrity culture some place superhuman expectations on the shoulders of mere mortals. Why? Because of their campaign promises, which we never should have believed. This is campaign season for some of the politicians in our church, and what I want them to know is that I’m praying for them because they are taking on a role of absolute servanthood. On the other hand, the ones who make being a politician look bad have forgotten that they were elected to serve the people, not manipulate them. Remember then to ask: who are you serving and what are you getting in return? I’ve told you about a man who bought acers and acers of land out west. He made all this money so he could get away from it all. He built this beautiful house way out in the wilderness. His son went to visit him and he said, “My father has built the most beautiful prison the world has ever seen.” We keep giving our gold to the Golden Calf, but the Golden Calf can’t give us anything in return. Do you know that? The Lord who delivered us from Egypt tells us to give 10% of what we have away. Do you know what kind of person actually does that? Surely you don’t know who gives what to the church, and we shouldn’t, but I’ve met some of the most philanthropic people, so now I know how to spot them. You’ll be able to spot them too if you know what to look for. Think of the most joyful person you’ve ever met. Think of the person who always has a smile on her face or a spring in his step. Think of the one who never complains and who exudes hope. That’s the person who’s giving away their money to something good rather than laying it at the feet of a golden calf. The Golden Calf makes empty promises and is glad to take your gold. His priests have these great big billboards from here to Chattanooga: buy an RV and have a happy family, buy a boat and set yourself free, buy happiness, buy joy, buy fulfillment – it won’t work. Some people spend more money on cable TV than they give to the church. What’s the return on that investment? The Golden Calf will take your money while offering sitcoms in return. On the other hand, the real God keeps saying, “give it away and find joy.” Guess what, it works every time. I think about the movie Schindler’s List. Do you remember what he does at the end of that movie? At the end of that movie he sees that there’s a ring on his finger. A gold ring. And he says, “How many people could this have saved?” It’s so strange what people will do with gold. Before you spend your next dollar, be sure to think about what you’re getting in return, because the golden calf takes and takes and takes without giving anything back to your soul, but what about God? Our God is faithful to us. Our God has proven himself to us. So why don’t we listen? It reminds me of a new minister who was trying to enter the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee. Before a new minister can serve a church in a new presbytery he or she must be examined on the floor in front of every other minister and so many elders. Some of the questions they get asked are hard to answer, but at some point or another every new minister trying to enter the Presbytery of Middle Tennessee will be asked as this one was, “Do you love Jesus?” The new pastor was nervous, but with confidence he said, “Yes I do, but not nearly as much as he loves me.” There’s a lot to balance when it comes to your time and your treasure, but I tell you that you must make God your first priori ty, because you are always His. And if you do with what you have according to his commandments, you’ll only have more of the joy that he’s promised. And now and finally: Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen, and the God of peace will be with you. Now and forever, Amen.