At Home With God

Sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly on August 23, 2009 at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: 1 Kings 8:1-6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43 and Psalm 84

Where and when have you experienced God’s presence? What has it meant to you… and what have you done about it?

I grew up in a UCC church, with near-perfect attendance in Sunday school. Because of that—or in spite of it, I don’t know which—I had my first real experience of knowing God’s presence when I was 11 years old and my beloved grandfather had a stroke and was in the State Hospital where I wasn’t allowed to visit. It was a long summer with my mom and grandmother visiting him every day while Dad & I sat in the car or under a tree on the hospital grounds. Pappy (my grandfather) died the night before I started 6^th grade. My grandfather no longer took me places and played with me, but I had become acutely aware that there really was a God and that God was my friend and kept me company.

That experience came in very handy when I was in college in the early ‘70s. Our campus had a group referred to as “Jesus Freaks.” I’m sure they were at many other colleges too. They liked to go around asking people when they were saved. I equated their definition of being “saved” with my awareness of God’s presence in my life, so I answered their question by saying, “when I was 11.” They never bothered me again.

I went to church camp for the first time the summer after 7^th grade. Camp Caz in the Russian River area of northern California is an incredible place of beauty, special friends, spirituality and God-experiences. I loved to sit at Vesper Point and soak up God’s presence and empowerment, both as a teenager and 20 years later as a camp counselor, chaplain and co-director.

I have also experienced God’s presence on a 3-day bike ride in the Napa Valley; in the voice of a pastor telling me I should consider going to seminary; in a colleague’s prayer for me before I served communion for the first time; at my ordination; at Pilgrim Heights camp in Iowa and in the love and creativity of the youth who attended camp there; at deathbed vigils and baptismal celebrations; in the love and caring of many parishioners; in groups of people working together to make a difference in their church, school, community or the world, or working together to bring justice for all where there is inequality for some; and in people whose hearts are filled with love for others and who continue to live in hope even in the face of those who espouse pessimistic opinions and exude negative energy.

In today’s reading from 1 Kings, it seems that Solomon realized that God was much bigger than people had previously thought. The Israelites carried God with them on their wanderings, believing that God resided in the Ark of the Covenant. Now Solomon has built the Temple in Jerusalem—a truly incredible architectural wonder—so that God may have a much grander residence. But Solomon says, in his great prayer to God, “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!”

In spite of his many imperfections, Solomon was at home with God. So was Jesus. So was Paul. So can you and I be if we open our ears, eyes, hearts and minds to God’s comforting, calling and challenging presence in our lives.

In Psalm 84 the author praises God and God’s dwelling place, wishing to always be in God’s presence where even the sparrow finds a home and the swallow a nest for her young. But we know that some people are homeless, some people are hungry and some people don’t have adequate health care. And guess what?! God can be experienced in the folks who are trying to find ways to provide shelter for the homeless, in the volunteers at the Food Shelf, the Clothes Closet and similar places everywhere, and in everyone who is truly working to solve—and not hinder—the health care crisis in the United States. And I know God was present in Minneapolis this week when the ELCA was meeting and voting for justice and equality for gay and lesbian clergy, just as the UCC has done in the past.

The psalmist says it’s better to be at home with God for just one day than to spend a thousand days elsewhere.

There are lots of things we think are better than other things. My colleague, Kirk Moore, was kind enough to make up an interesting list:

“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”—Mark Twain (also ascribed to Abraham Lincoln)

“It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front.”—Nelson Mandela

“It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.”—Josh Billings— 19^th century comedian

“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”—Chinese Proverb

“It is better to give than to receive.”—Acts 20:35

“It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied.”—John Stuart Mill—19th century philosopher

“It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.”—Alfred Lord Tennyson—19th century poet

“It is better to know some of the questions, than all of the answers.”—James Thurber—20^th century author

“It is better to look good than to feel good.”—Fernando Lamas[i]

And of course from Psalm 84, there’s a similar ‘better’ quote: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere;” Psalm 84:10a (TNIV)

It’s better to be at home with God than anywhere without God. Being at home with God means knowing that God is bigger than any box anyone could possibly make to “hold” God. Being at home with God means realizing that God is everywhere, all the time, all at once. God is in our hearts, in our church, in our town, our state, our nation… and God is also in the whole world and beyond the earth throughout the galaxies and the universe. And even beyond that! God has been here—and there—forever. And God will continue to BE forever!

Being at home with God means trusting that God will be with us, and guide us, in our endeavors. There is much to do when we are at home with God, just as there is always much to do in our own homes. We are called to have faith and to try a few new things. We already know that when we place our trust in God and work together, amazing things can and do happen.

And the psalmist has one more reminder… “O God of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you.” AMEN.

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[i] The Rev. Kirk Moore, Union Congregational Church, UCC, Somonauk, IL

http://unioncongregationalucc.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/oneday/

Excitement!

Last Monday we had big news in our family--our daughter and her boyfriend got engaged at Mount Rushmore! So the next year will be full of fun planning for the wedding.

Courtney & Rob

Wisdom Quest

Today's sermon preached at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: 1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14 and Psalm 111

Who would you think of if you were asked to name the wisest person in history? Would Solomon be up there as #1 or close to it? Solomon has a reputation for being a wise and caring ruler. “The wisdom of Solomon” is a phrase that’s probably familiar to most of us.

But Solomon wasn’t perfect. Not by a long shot! Here’s a little of his history:

Absalom rebelled against his father and made himself king, until he was executed by Joab. Adonijah took a more political route, getting the support of David’s general, Joab, and the priest, Abiathar. Solomon supplanted Adonijah and became king through the “Jacob strategy” (misleading an aging father into blessing the younger son with what belongs to the elder son). Nathan conspired with Bathsheba to lie to David, saying he had promised to place Solomon on the throne, and David was easily led to agree.

Solomon banished the priest Abiathar and shortly thereafter ordered the execution of Adonijah for requesting the young and beautiful Abishag the Shunammite as his wife. She was David’s wife late in life, brought in to keep him warm. Women were just property then, so upon David’s death, she belonged to Solomon, his heir and successor.

The next thing Solomon did was to have Joab killed. Though Shimei had not supported Adonijah, Solomon put him under house arrest, and when he left Jerusalem to retrieve some runaway slaves, Solomon had him executed. The scripture says, “So the kingdom was established in the hand of Solomon.”

And so it was—with three executions and a banishment! Truly, Solomon walked in the ways of his father David.

So, what made Solomon’s reign different?

Strategic alliances with powerful neighbors permitted a generation of peace. Solomon married the daughter of a Pharaoh, and established a trade agreement with King Hiram of Tyre, cementing relationships to the south and to the north. Even if the tradition somewhat exaggerates (1 Kings 11 claims 700 princesses among Solomon’s foreign wives), Solomon clearly understood the usefulness of turning your neighbors into in-laws.

In addition, Solomon extracted great wealth from his subjects, enabling the construction of the glorious temple, and many other works. He introduced forced labor on a massive scale, with thousands of subjects working a third of the year for the king. He also adopted the horse and chariot, instead of riding a donkey like his father. This gave him greater speed and permitted swift and terrible punishment of anyone who dared to rebel against the king.

In spite of all that, Jesus sees Solomon as the epitome of human wisdom and glory, but probably no greater than the least child of God in the Kingdom. Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus said: “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.”[i] Jesus also said, “The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because she came from the ends of the earth to listen to the wisdom of Solomon, and see, something greater than Solomon is here!”[ii]

But, even though Solomon wasn’t all that different from political leaders of our day, he did have some wisdom when confronted by God in today’s passage from 1 Kings. His prayer was very different from what most people would probably ask for—he asked for wisdom and an understanding mind.

Solomon told God he was only a boy, which is said to mean he was probably about 20. At that point in his life he seems to already have enough wisdom to ask for the attributes that would make him a good king instead of asking for wealth and power. Later in life, however, Solomon gave up following God and doing all the things God really wanted the kings of Israel to do. It turned out he was very human after all.

What kind of wisdom do we need? This week while I was on study leave, I read a book called The Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation. The missing generation is the 20 to 40 year olds. The author contends that we older generations need to understand that life is TOTALLY different for adults under 40 than it was for us when we were that age. She tells a number of things she feels congregations need to do to welcome these young adults and make them feel comfortable in our mainline churches.

We might pray for the wisdom to drop our preconceived notions, expectations and generalizations, remembering that life today is nothing like it was in the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s or ‘80s. Technology is a necessity for young adults today, as are other things that older folks might consider frivolous if there’s not enough money to make ends meet. Just because something was good enough for us “way back when” doesn’t mean it’s good enough—or sometimes even appropriate—for younger generations today.

There is so much to understanding and caring for others whose experience may be vastly different from ours. Today we live in a society that, unlike ancient Israel, claims to be built upon the separation of church and state but often brings religious beliefs and claims of authority into the political arena, if not our shared public life. We’ve all seen people argue vehemently about putting the Ten Commandments on a courthouse wall as a mark of our faithfulness or expect political candidates to speak fervently of their faith life. Yet so many of us—and our politicians—fail to make sure that all of God's children have the basic goods of life.

While we worry about the pledge of allegiance, prayer in public schools, putting the Ten Commandments on public walls or how we might find a way to force everyone to be heterosexual, we neglect “the widow, the poor, and the foreigner in our midst”—those most vulnerable and in need. Wasn’t this exactly what God expected in both the Old and New Testaments? Aren’t justice and compassion the “gospel” values preached and embodied by Jesus, the one whose wisdom we desire? Would Jesus have much to say about engraving Commandments in stone when the heart of God’s law is broken all around us?[iii]

I think generational differences and an unwillingness to listen to or make room for the new ideas of younger generations is one of our biggest problems in the world. But small, intimate, intergenerational churches have a fabulous opportunity to show everyone else how it’s done! Sometimes it’s hard to let go of traditions and so we say “no, we can’t do that because we’ve never done it that way before,” but new ideas and experiments can be great fun and they can even establish new traditions!

Solomon is famous for building the greatest worship center in ancient times (in our tradition), but his heart strayed to false gods. He did seek wisdom and he started out praising God like his father, David had done.

There is much for us to learn from Solomon’s wisdom and from his story. If we set our minds and hearts to praising God, perhaps we’ll remain on the path of following in the footsteps of Jesus and loving and living as God has called us to do.

Ego can get in the way. Sometimes we think we know best because we’re supposedly older and wiser. But each of God’s people has gifts to share with all the others. And for those gifts we can all “praise God and give thanks to God with our whole heart.”[iv] AMEN.

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[i] Luke 12:27, NRSV.

[ii] Matt. 12:42 and Luke 11:31, NRSV.

[iii] The Rev. Kate Huey, http://www.ucc.org/worship/samuel/august-16-2009-eighteenth-sunday-1-1.html

[iv] Psalm 111:1, NRSV.

Growing Into Our Identity

Sermon preached by the Rev. Sue Judson Hamly on August 9, 2009 at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Texts: Ephesians 4:25--5:2 and John 6:35, 41-51

Simon says rest your chin on your fist and pay close attention! Or maybe you’d rather hear it like this: Simon says sit back and relax, it’s time for a 12-minute nap!

Whatever your preference, I’m sure everyone here has played “Simon Says” at some time in our lives. Simon says put your hands in the air… Simon says stand on one foot and wave… Simon says hug your neighbor… Simon says clap your hands… Simon says smile… Simon says scratch your nose… Simon says put $50 in the offering plate!

Aha! We’ll see how many people follow that one!

We think of Simon Says as a fun game. We do what the leader says because we are trying to see if we can do everything “Simon” says to do. But in real life people sometimes do what others tell them to do—or what others do—because they don’t want to be left out, or they don’t want to be different, or they don’t want to have to think or make decisions for themselves, or they want to be like the person they are imitating.

The letter to the Ephesians is one of uncertain authorship. Some people will say that Paul wrote it, but scholars believe it was written by someone else—a disciple of Paul or someone wanting to sound like Paul. Perhaps the author figured that if everyone thought Paul wrote the letter, they would be more likely to pay attention to its contents.

Imitating can be a good thing. It can be complimentary or flattering, or sometimes it may go too far.

In this letter to the Ephesians, God’s people are being called to be imitators of God and to live in love as Christ loved us.

We may think that imitating God is a difficult thing to do, but it shouldn’t be. What the passage is calling us to do is to imitate “the particular character of God’s love toward humankind,”[i] and previously in the letter we are told what and how.

Truthful speech, or speaking the truth in love is natural because Christians are now members one of another. This membership is entirely different from how most people today think of membership. It’s not being on a list of names of folks who belong to a particular church or organization—there’s more to it than that. Membership, in the context of this letter and in the experience of the early Christians, is that everyone belongs to the same body. When that is the case, “Christians can no more tolerate lying to one another than the parts of one’s body can deceive one another. It [simply] can’t be done.”[ii]

Another way to imitate God is not to let anger get the better of us. It’s OK to be angry, but we should be careful what we do or say when we’re angry. In the letter—which was written to people living in the first century—this is also referring to not allowing the devil to deceive and mislead believers. We might understand this today as an admonition to beware of forces outside the community that are capable of undermining the community’s strength. And sometimes within organizations there may be one or a few members who are capable of undermining the organization’s strength. So it continues to be important to speak the truth in love.

Then of course there is forgiveness. That’s definitely a biggie. Forgive others as God has forgiven you. Not an easy one. Not at all. But the Christian community cannot grow or flourish if its members are unable to forgive one another. By example, God’s forgiveness enables us to learn what forgiveness is and then it obliges us to act out that forgiveness in our own lives.

What a challenge! Does all that help us to know—or learn—who we are as Christians? Can we find our identity or grow into it?

Fortunately, there is also God’s gift of faith that helps us to keep putting one foot in front of the other on our personal journeys and on our journey together to discover who we are as God’s very beloved people

Jesus tells us how simple it is. He is the Bread of Life. All who believe in him and come to him will be neither hungry nor thirsty. And the bread he gives for the life of the world is himself. Believe in him… trust in him… live in his way. It's really quite simple….

But the author of Ephesians knows that even though we realize it’s simple, it is still difficult for us human beings to achieve. So he says we must learn Christ so that we put on a new human nature. He says we need to do this in a community of support—the Church—as we learn to live out our created interdependence and learn the meaning of partnership. By the power of the Spirit at work in our lives, we are in the process of becoming human in the midst of our struggles with our old human nature, and one day we will be fully human when we are set free from the restraint of our old creation and are fully united with God.[iii]

So… here’s how I understand it—we are called to be God’s people. This comes with responsibilities. These responsibilities are not easy, but we are called and challenged to try to live up to them every day of our lives, both as individuals and as congregations.

And when we fail, there is forgiveness.

God has named and claimed us, so there is always Hope and there is always the Promise. We place our hope, our faith and our trust in God and God promises to love and forgive us. It's a two-way street. It’s not easy. It takes hard work. But we can all help one another because we are all members of the same body—the body of Christ.

We can work together to figure out who we are and remind one another Whose we are. What does it mean to be God’s people? How do we visualize and grow into our identity as God’s UCC people here in this town? What does God’s love mean to us? What are the responsibilities?

Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”[iv] Jesus also said, “Love one another the way I have loved you. This is the very best way to love.”[v]

And so Simon says Love One Another! It’s the best thing we can ever do! AMEN.

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[i] Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Years A, B, and C, Brueggemann, Cousar, Gaventa, McCann and Newsome. DVD version, p. 462.

[ii] Ibid.

[iii] Letty Russell, Imitating God: A Study Book on Ephesians. 1984. Pp. 81 & 84. Quoted by Hank Lay in note #1 of “Sermonshop 2000 08 13.”

[iv] John 6:35, NRSV.

[v] John 15:12, The Message: the Bible in Contemporary Language, by Eugene H. Peterson, 2005.

Bread and Faith

Sermon preached this morning at Faith United Church, UCC, International Falls, MN

Text: John 6:24-35

Before I write a sermon, I have read a reflection on the UCC website, I’ve discussed the text with other clergy or read what they’re thinking online, I’ve read what the scholars and commentators have to say, and I’ve been cogitating throughout the week.

But when I sit down to write—or technically, to type—what I’m going to say on Sunday morning I often find myself becoming restless and getting up and walking to the kitchen to see what I can find to munch on.

Distractions, distractions! There’s even a group of clergy on facebook who discuss all the things they allow themselves to be distracted by before they finally settle down to write their sermons. I was so glad to know I’m not alone!

But as I was thinking about bread and faith and Jesus saying “I am the bread of life,” I wondered if there was more to my forays into the kitchen in search of nibbles? Can cinnamon toast or popcorn, grapes or dried apricots, cheese or a cookie improve my sermon or my thought processes? Or is it symbolic of my search for inspiration or meaning or guidance?

What does it mean that Jesus is the Bread of Life or that those who believe in him will never be hungry or thirsty? And what does that mean to people who have never truly experienced hunger?

Oh sure, we’ve all had growling stomachs and I’m sure many of us here this morning have had times in our lives when we weren’t sure if the grocery money would hold out ‘til the next pay check. In my last year of college my work study money ran out part way through the year and I was grateful for Food Stamps. But most of us have never experienced not knowing where our next meal was coming from or what it’s like to only have one meal a day. Our biggest food worry might be who’s going to sign up for Coffee Hour next week?!

For many Americans today the opposite is a problem—we’re not hungry, we’re stuffed! Maybe even over-stuffed! Every time you turn on the TV or pick up a magazine there’s some new kind of diet being publicized. A colleague got me started on a list of diets… There’s Christian Weight Loss, or if you don’t like that idea there’s Scientific Weight Loss. There’s Miracle Weight Loss Pills, the Grapefruit diet, Dr. Phil’s Diet, Pat Robertson’s Diet, the Celebrity Juice diet,[i] the Zone diet , the South Beach Diet, Weight Watchers, and even the Bread of Life diet! You need to be on a diet? There’s an amazing number to choose from!

Even when it comes to plain ol’ bread… there’s a wide variety of choices in American grocery stores—even in our very own Super One! You can get potato bread or rye bread or buttermilk bread or French bread or Italian bread or 12-grain bread and of course wheat and white to name just a few. The last time we were at Courtney’s we grilled veggies on her Panini griddler and put them between slices of ciabatta bread, converted the grill to a press and had fabulous Panini sandwiches!

Now that you’re wondering what you’ll fix for lunch… I’ll remind you that some of us can’t eat too much bread because the carbs are bad for us. But we can’t have too much of the Bread of Life and it’s always good for us.

Last week we heard John’s version of the story of Jesus feeding 5,000 people with only 5 loaves and 2 fish. The people were pretty impressed and thought someone who could pull that off would be perfect to be their king. So Jesus hurried the disciples off across the lake before they could seize him and make him king.

Once the people realize that this amazing person who fed them is gone, they jump into boats and follow him across the lake to Capernaum. When they catch up with him they ask “when did you come here?” which may be more like “hey, how’d you get here so fast?” or “how did we lose you?”

Jesus answers them something like this, “you’re looking for me only because you ate the bread and had all you wanted, not because you witnessed miracles. Don’t work for food that goes to waste, but for food that lasts—food for real life—which the son of Man will give you; on him God the Father has put [the] stamp of approval.”

But the crowd persists. “What must we do to set about doing what God wants done?” they ask.

“What God wants you to do,” Jesus says, “is to believe in the One God has sent.” In other words, Jesus is saying, “Believe in what I teach. Believe in me.”

In John’s gospel bread is a symbol of life and the Bread of Life is a symbol for Jesus. Jesus IS life—the life God wishes for all people. No one can ever accuse Jesus of ignoring the physical needs of hungry people since he has just fed five thousand all they could eat, BUT life is more than eating, and until the crowds understand that, they will not grasp who Jesus really is and what he is about.[ii]

For John who Jesus is and what he is about means believing as Jesus believed—that God creates good and suffers from our evil, as we do; and that goodness comes to us when we let ourselves see and hear it, and when we live good—godly—lives as a response. It could get us killed, living and believing that way. Jesus himself has shown us that. He also has shown us how to conquer fear and the cold hand of death, and God has blessed that belief—and our [belief], as we come to believe as Jesus believed and [live as Jesus] lived.”[iii]

But what does it mean for the people in the world who never get enough to eat? For the little girl in Haiti who tries to assuage her hunger by eating dirt or the little boy who cries at night because he’s so hungry?[iv]

“Whoever comes to me will never be hungry. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” In Jesus’ day this means “authentic Mediterranean commitment, loyalty, and solidarity. Stick with Jesus no matter what!” If we read the story of the loaves and fishes as a sign, pointing to the profound reality of the gift of God in Jesus we can see that "The gift and the giver are one and the same.” But we most likely do so on a full stomach. “It is difficult to think lofty thoughts when one’s stomach growls from hunger.”[v]

So bread may be a sign of faith to us, but it’s an absolute necessity for life to others. In following Jesus, we too are called to feed the hungry. As we gather at the communion table, we are reminded also that Jesus ate with everyone, rich and poor, men and women, the sick and the healthy…everyone! And to each one he gave what they needed—the Bread of Life as food for their stomachs or faith for their spiritual journeys.

If we follow his example, not only we—but others as well—will find our huger and our thirst satisfied with God’s love. AMEN.

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[i] Rev. Kirk Moore,

http://unioncongregationalucc.wordpress.com/2009/07/31/sermon-for-8209-–-“bread-of-life”-–-john-624-35/

[ii] Adapted from Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV-Year B, p. 455.

[iii] August 3, 2006, http://www.rfcnews.com/

[iv] John Dominic Crossan and Richard G. Watts, Who is Jesus?

[v] John J. Pilch, The Cultural World of Jesus Year B.