Fellowship Reformed Church of Holland

June 4, 2017
Brian Keepers
Ephesians 3:14-21

May 28, 2017
Nate Schipper
Romans 6:1-11

Memorial Day weekend informally serves as the start of summer.  This is the weekend people put their boats in the water, open their pools, plant their annuals, start wearing white pants (for some) and fire up the grill.  I love the anticipatory nature of Memorial Day – summer is here- well sort of for those of us in West Michigan, and we have a couple months ahead of long days and warm nights. 

So on this festive day, this holiday weekend, and the gathering of the faithful here at Fellowship why not dive into Paul’s letter to the Romans as it deals with…. SIN.  It may not be the first passage that comes to mind when we consider Memorial Day but I trust that God has something for us in it.  I trust that as we read together from Romans chapter 6 verses 1-11 that God will show us what it means for us to live gospel lives empowered by power of the Holy Spirit.

Read Romans 6:1-11

It bears repeating, “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”

Throughout this season after Easter we have been considering how we have been empowered to share.  As a people who BELONG to God and one another, as a people who are GROWING in their discipleship to Jesus, as a people who are SERVING Christ in this world we are also a people empowered to SHARE the good news of Jesus with those around us.

For those of you who were with us last week Pastor Brian reminded us that we have been given gifts, spiritual gifts, that Christ offers to us, that Christ hands down to us by the Spirit from his place ascended at the right hand of God.  This week I want to build off his sermon.  Romans chapter 6 is an appeal by Paul to pattern our lives after the life of Christ.  It is an appeal for us to use our God given gifts as a testimony to the work of the Spirit living inside of us for the purpose of showing the love of Christ to a lost and broken world.

A couple weeks ago I saw an interesting article titled, “Soviet’s atheism failed in Europe.”  The cover photo has a picture of a priest, in his liturgical flowing robe, holding an immersed baby in the town square.  It was a beautiful and eye-catching photo.   It certainly seemed like good news, like an interesting article, which it was but it also contained a bit of a twist.  But before I tell you what it said let’s first consider what Romans 6 says and DOES…

The first thing Romans chapter 6 does is confront the natural logic of Paul’s arguments in Chapters 4 and 5.  In these chapters Paul explicitly states that the promises of God and the righteousness of God are bestowed upon us, his people, by faith.  Faith is what justifies us.  Faith is what makes us right with God not our own works, and certainly not the law.  It is by grace we are saved through faith.  Jesus does this – Jesus makes us right with God. 

JESUS IS GOD’S ULTIMATE ANSWER TO SIN.   

These two chapters can be summarized in this famous quote from chapter 5:

“Therefore just as one man’s trespass (Adam led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness (Jesus) leads to justification and life for all. 

However great Adam’s sin, however great our sin, God’s grace in Christ is greater, is sufficient to forgive us and make us right with God.

So, one might say, and apparently Paul’s readers assumed, if it is all about Jesus and his work on the cross, if SIN is an occasion for GRACE then perhaps we should just keep on living in sin so that grace may abound!?

Paul’s response to this is “BY NO MEANS.”  Paul emphatically rejects this logic.  And we do too.  This would be like the Prodigal Son, after experiencing the incredible grace of his father in throwing a party and welcoming him home asking for ANOTHER portion of his inheritance to squander all so he can come home yet again. 

For those of us that have been in the church for a while we know that we are not to concisely engage in sin.  We are really good at rejecting sin and trying to help people avoid living in it.  In fact sometimes I wonder if we might be too good.  Sometimes the church is the place of judgement and a place where we hide or cover up who we are in order to put on the appearance of living “great lives.”   

Maybe we can’t relate to Paul’s readers in that way.  Maybe we know better than to keep on sinning so that grace may abound, but how often do we, LIKE Paul’s readers come to quick conclusions about what some else is saying.  Paul was correcting the false conclusions his readers were making about what he was saying.  How often do we come to conclusions about what another is saying before we hear them out?  How often do we make meaning out of another’s words or actions?

This past week I was listening to Christian Radio.  I am not necessarily a Christian radio junky, it is #2 or #3 on my car preset list don’t get me wrong.  I tend to favor talk radio- NPR or ESPN radio are up there on my preset list.  So whenever I have kids in the car, OR NPR is doing their annual pledge drive Christian Radio is up there on my list. J

Whenever I listen to Christian Radio stations I can quickly fall into judgement, I can quickly jump to unfair conclusions about the lyrics I hear.  I have a, most likely false, working assumption that all Christian songs are about me, myself or I.  I assume Christian radio music fails to point us towards God and Christ’s reconciling work in the world.  So when I listen to it I don’t just jump to conclusions based on the lyrics they sing, I actually am looking for them to re-inforce my pre-conceived assumptions about Christian radio.

This was made clear to me as I listened to a song by Jason Gray called “I will rise again.”  As I listened critically to his lyrics about rising again, I quickly began to start thinking – you don’t rise again, Christ does that by the power of the Spirit.  Amidst my judgement I recalled a book titled, “Rising Strong,” by Brene Brown that I have read excerpts from and a number of people I love appreciate.  This book seems to touch on the same themes that Jason Grays song touches on – the same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to you by the power of the Spirit! 

What made my response different to the song than the book?  Why did I quickly judge the title of the song but not the title of the book?

It was my assumptions about what the song would say without listening to it and my tendency to listen to people I know and love.  Maybe Romans 6 is a reminder to us that we all have a tendency to make assumptions, to jump to conclusions about what someone else is saying based on our own thoughts about them.

I mean no one here has ever jumped to conclusions about what someone else is saying based on the political party they are a part of, the clothes they wear, the color of their skin, their gender or age, or the church or denomination they belong to have you?

I told you about an article I read from CT.  The headline said Atheism is failing and the data that they used to support that was that in a number of countries from the former Soviet block in Eastern Europe a majority of the people that live in those countries (sometimes 80-90%) belong to the Russian Orthodox Church or the Catholic Church.  This may seem like good news, but based on their self-disclosed survey responses about worship attendance, prayer, and their spiritual lives the article concluded, “Belonging and believing but not Behaving.”  Even our headlines have a tendency to push us to make conclusions that are not as true as we might assume.

So the first thing that Paul does is correct the false logic of his readers.  He emphatically rejects that we are to continue in sin so that grace may abound.  The SECOND thing Paul does is remind us of who we are.

Paul’s appeal in this verse is repeated in a multitude of ways but could be summarized – “In baptism you died to sin and were resurrected to new life- live like you have been baptized!”

Paul is not simply telling us DO things or BELIEVE certain things, he is reminding his readers, he is reminding us of WHO WE ARE as baptized children of God.  When we recall our own passing through the waters of baptism, whenever we have an opportunity to witness a baptism like we did just a couple weeks ago, we remember who we are:

-          We are a people who belong to God – who have been claimed BY God

-          We are a people united to Christ – in his dying AND his rising

-          We are a people entrusted with the HOLY Spirit and given gifts for life and ministry

Paul is reminding us that the Christian life is not just a mental assertion of what we believe, or a list of things we are to do, it is a unification with Christ! Being united to Christ causes us to live differently!

A couples years ago I was at a retreat with some students.  The speaker was a former hockey player so he used his hockey team as his primary metaphor for the weekend.  He talked about his hockey stick as a reminder that we have been given different gifts and tools for serving the team.  He talked about his safety equipment that served to keep him safe from attacks by the opponent, and he talked about his jersey as a mark of his allegiance to his team. 

He talked about the honor it was to be able to wear the jersey, to be physically marked as a member of his team.  For him it wasn’t a burden to wear the jersey.  It wasn’t an obligation or something he did out of guilt.  The jersey for him was a privilege.

We have been given an opportunity to play for Christ’s team, to live under the protection of the Spirit and use our gifts to serve Christ as people who have been baptized into Christ’s team.   It is an honor to play for Christ’s team to be marked as His own!

Martin Luther calls Baptism a daily garment we wear by faith.  It is daily in that it is with us every day and a garment in that it marks us, it distinguishes us as God’s chosen people.   And so, our attempts to live faithful lives, to use our Spiritual gifts to partner with Christ’s reconciling work in the world is quite simply us living more fully into the identity Christ gave us at baptism.

As we consider in this season how we might be empowered to share the good news of Jesus Christ, Paul in Romans 6 is encouraging us to use our lives as a testimony to Christ.  We have talked about being courageous witnesses, being open and available to the Spirit’s work in our lives.  We have considered practicing the art of “With-ness,” and using the Gifts God has given us, Paul is encouraging us today to be gospel people.  Let your lives testify to who you are as a baptized people.   Let us adopt the words attributed to St Francis of Assisi, “Preach the gospel always, and when necessary use words.”  You have the honor of being Christ’s hands and feet to a lost and broken world.

On Friday a team of about 20 folks from Fellowship sat with students from Lakewood Elementary under the afternoon sun.  Our own Karen Donker honored each of these Kid’s Hope students with a “most-likely” award.  The student’s joy was tangible as Karen identified each one of them with an award like, “Most-likely to be a professional soccer player.”  “Most likely to Help a friend,” “Most-likely to win a cooking contest.”  Each kid, each a unique “most-likely.”  It was a celebration of these students and the relationship their mentor had with them.  What a joy it was for them to be identified as “Most-Likely” to do something.

You have been given a gift too.  You have been deemed by God “Most-likely to represent ME on earth.”  God has initiated a relationship with you.  God knows you.  God has given you a gift and he invites you.  He HONORS you with the opportunity to use it to represent Christ in this world.

The first Q&A of our Heidelberg Catechism asks, “What is your only comfort in life and in death?”  We often remember the first part of the answer, “That I am not my own but belong, in life and in death, to my faithful savior Jesus Christ.  He has fully paid for all my sins….  Because I belong to him, Christ, by his Holy Spirit, assures of eternal life, AND – AND – AND, makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.”

Because we belong to Christ we live for him.  You have been deemed worthy, you have been honored to represent Christ in this world – how will you respond?  How might WE respond?

May 21, 2017
Brian Keepers
Ephesians 4:1-16

            I, therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.

Let’s just think about these words for a minute: lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called. What calling? To be Christ’s witnesses—those empowered by the Holy Spirit to share the good news of God’s love in Jesus.

Paul says live a life that is worthy of that calling. In other words, live a life that fits with that calling as a witness—so that the way you live lines up with who you are in Christ. And when the way we live lines up with our identity and calling in Christ, then we grow into maturity; we are living lives of integrity.

Chapter 4 of Ephesians, and the next couple chapters that finish out the letter, deal specifically with how we can live a life worthy of our calling as Christ’s witnesses. This is a familiar passage to many of us.

There’s so much I want to say about this marvelous text today, especially as it pertains to this idea of getting our living and God’s calling to fit together. I’m going to restrain myself to focus on a couple verses that tend to get overlooked. So often we focus on this wonderful beginning where Paul issues this call to unity, reminding us of our one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. Or we jump ahead to Paul’s discussion of spiritual gifts and their importance in building up the body of Christ in love. But not much is ever done with this odd verse that is the linchpin between these two sections:

When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; and he gave gifts to his people.

Why in the world does Paul seem to interrupt the flow of his writing with this odd sentence? And where does it come from? Well, it’s actually taken from Psalm 68, which is a vigorous psalm of celebration all about God’s magnificent acts of salvation in Hebrew history. Not only does the Psalm recall past events, but it anticipates God’s future victory as the one true King of the whole world.

The psalm begins with these words: “Let God rise up, let his enemies be scattered.” It then goes on to recount the ways that God goes on a salvation march across the country, taking his enemies captive along the way. The psalm culminates with God ascending the high mountain, and all people, friends and foes alike, gathering around the mountain to worship and bear gifts.

Verses 17-20 provide the material from which Paul draws for this sentence in Ephesians:

With mighty chariotry, twice ten thousand,
Thousands upon thousands, the Lord came from Sinai in the holy place.
You ascended the high mount,
leading captives in your train
and receiving gifts from your people,
even from those who rebel
against the Lord God’s abiding there.

Paul is not being haphazard by inserting this stanza of Psalm 68 here. As always, Paul is very intentional as both a theologian and a pastor, cutting out and stitching these verses together with the steady hand of a surgeon, so that he might shape our imaginations as to what this new life in Christ looks like.

Okay, so why is this stanza from Psalm 68 so important? Paul is using it in reference to Christ’s ascension to the right hand of the Father. Notice that Paul does not translate Psalm 68 literally but he condenses it and adapts it to find its fulfillment in Jesus. He does this specifically in two ways. The first I just mentioned. Rather than saying “God ascends” Paul writes that “he [Jesus] ascends.” Paul does this sort of thing all the time—equating Jesus with God (YHWH).

I’ll get to the other way in which Paul adapts the text from Psalm 68 in just a minute, but first, I want to linger a bit longer on this key truth that Jesus has ascended to the right hand of the Father. Jesus’ Ascension may be one of the most overlooked and under-celebrated events in the church’s life. We know how to celebrate Jesus’ birth (our whole society gets in on it, even if only in a secular way). We throw a good party for Easter. Even Pentecost gets made into a big deal (as it should). But Christ’s ascension is largely forgotten. Part of this reason is because Ascension Day always lands on a Thursday, never on a Sunday, and so it doesn’t get a whole worship service devoted to it.

But Jesus’ ascension must never be separated from his death and resurrection. The ascension is God’s exclamation point on the cross and the empty tomb! The ascension of Jesus is God’s vindication of the injustice and humility of the cross—the one who bore the sins and the shame of the world is now exalted to his rightful place, next to the Father in heaven, where he is crowned King of all creation and rules from on high.

Many years ago, when Emma and Abby were younger, my brother and his wife were babysitting our girls. Our oldest, Emma (6 years old at the time), decided she wanted to watch a movie. As they scavenged through all our DVDs, my brother asked Emma, “What would you like to watch?”

“Oh, I don’t really care,” she said. “Just not one of those Jesus movies!” (By “Jesus movies” she meant our DVD’s that are animated Bible stories. She wasn’t interested in watching any of those! How’s that for a ‘PK?”)

“Why not?” my brother asked her. “What’s wrong with the Jesus movies?”

“Oh, you know, they’re not very for real,” Emma answered. “They make Jesus way too small!”

I’m pretty sure the Apostle Paul would agree! Yes, Jesus made himself so small as to fit cradled in the womb of a teenage girl. That’s what Paul means when he says, “The one who ascended also descended to the lowest parts of the earth.” He’s talking about the incarnation. Paul goes on to exclaim: “But the one who descended also ascended far above the highest heavens, so that he might fill all things!” It is the Ascension that announces God’s ultimate victory over sin and death and all the principalities and powers of darkness. And it is the Ascension that makes Jesus larger than life! We have a tendency to make Jesus too small!

It is the Ascension that also makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to be poured out upon God’s people, gathering us together, and empowering us for ministry in Jesus’ name. Paul is not calling us to try harder and to give more effort on our own strength. No, he knows that living a life worthy of our calling, that growing up in Christ, is only possible because Jesus sits on the throne and, through the Holy Spirit, pours out his strength and power.

Beyond the gift of the Holy Spirit, Paul tells us that the enthroned King Jesus also hands out other gifts to his people; gifts of grace that are given according to Christ’s measure. And here is where Paul makes another key adaption to Psalm 68. You may recall that Psalm 68 talks about how all the people, friends and foes alike, brought gifts to God to acknowledge his kingship. And of course we do this every time we worship. We come bearing gifts, not just our tithes and offerings but our talents and our praise and our very selves, offered on the altar to the King who is worthy of far more than we could ever give.

But it’s critical to what Paul is doing here to see why he makes this change. Paul did not make a translation error. His memory is not fading. Paul wants us to see Jesus, the ascended king at the right hand of the Father, not simply as the king who receives our gifts but as the king who graciously gives gifts.

If we are going to get our walking to fit with God’s calling and be built up together as Christ’s body to join God’s mission in the world, then it will only happen if we are fully equipped. And Jesus sees to this. He gives us gifts of grace from his hands.

Every single one of us gets a gift. Some of us get more than one. But we don’t choose the gifts. We don’t apply for them. We don’t somehow merit them. They are given according to Christ’s determination and purpose, and they are never given simply for ourselves! They are given for the purpose of serving others, for building up the body of Christ, for doing the work of ministry together. Eugene Peterson puts it this way:

“Each gift is an invitation and provides the means to participate in the work of Jesus. These are not gifts to be placed on the mantle like a vase of flowers. They are not gifts to be used for our convenience like, say, a cell phone. These are not gifts to divert or entertain us, like a gift of tickets to the symphony. These are not gifts of appreciation like an anniversary ruby necklace or a retirement Rolex. These are gifts that equip us to work alongside of and in company with Jesus—“the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” We are being invited into a working relationship in the operations of the Trinity.”[1]

These gifts are given so that each of us might get in on the work of the Trinity—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in the life of the Christian community and in mission in the world. None of us is insignificant. We all play a part. Every part matters. You’ve been given a gift. And with that gift you have an assignment. Do you know what gift/gifts you’ve been given? How are you using your gifts to build up Christ’s body?

Paul loves to list the various gifts. He lists a few here, and many others in places like 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. British theologian John Stott identifies at least twenty-eight distinctive gifts that Paul mentions. But not even that combined list is meant to be exhaustive. Paul’s point is that we all have been given gifts from the king’s hands, and therefore called into the king’s service.

In his great poem on the church, titled “The Rock,” T.S. Eliot captures the essence of Paul’s insight on the nature and place of the gifts of grace that have been given us from the king’s hands:

There is work together
A Church for all
And a job for each
Every man to his work.

One of our primary goals here at Fellowship Church is to be creating a culture where we joyfully celebrate the diversity of our gifts and recognize how much we really do need each other. We have a tradition of designating one Sunday in the month of May to let down our hair, cut loose and celebrate our work together and the God who calls us to this work. We call it “Kudos Day,” taken from the Greek word “kudos” which means “to appreciate” or “to give credit.”

And so in a minute our children and Sunday School teachers will be flooding into the sanctuary to help us celebrate right, Pastor Nate and Betsy Bruins will come forward to lead us in a time of giving thanks! But first, let us pray together, asking Jesus our king to give us his strength and power from on high so that we might continue to grow up in every way into Christ our Head and get our everyday walking in step with God’s glorious calling.

In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

[1] Ibid, p.47

Click HERE for the Spiritual Gifts Assessment.

May 14, 2017
Brian Keepers
Acts 8:26-40

Introduction

A children’s choir was performing a special Easter anthem as a part of their church’s Easter Sunday celebration.  When the song was finished, a little boy had been assigned to step out and recite Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John, where Jesus says, “I am the Light of the World!”  The little boy stepped out on cue, but suddenly froze as his mind went blank, with all those faces staring at him.  Fortunately, his mother was sitting in the front pew, and she leaned in and whispered her son’s line: “I am the Light of the World.” The little boy regained his confidence, stood up straight, and belted out, “My mother is the Light of the World!”

There are many of us who share this little boy’s sentiment as we celebrate our mothers and the other special women in our lives today.  But as wonderful as these women may be, there is only One who is the true Light of the World.  His name is Jesus, the Crucified and Risen Lord who is on the move in the world.  And as John the Baptist reminds us, we are all called to be witnesses of this Light, to testify to him.

We’ve seen examples of these witnesses throughout the book of Acts.  We’ve met ordinary Christ-followers who, empowered by the Holy Spirit, were emboldened to be courageous witnesses:  Stephen who was martyred for his faith when he stood before the Jewish religious leaders and gave testimony to the risen and reigning Christ, and Ananias, this unassuming disciple who was flexible and available to God and was sent to pray over Saul of Tarsus.

Today we meet another one of these ordinary Christ-followers named Philip.  Philip is first introduced with Stephen in Acts 6, and was one of those deacons who helped care for the widows in need.  Then the Holy Spirit led him to the city of Samaria to preach the good news among the Samaritans.  But the Spirit is not done whisking Philip about.  Just wait to hear where the Spirit leads him next.  Listen to this story from the book that we love, found in Acts chapter 8.  Recite Scripture.

Drawn into the Story

Well, nothing says “Happy Mother’s Day” quite like a strange story in the Bible about a eunuch in a chariot!  This is a strange story, indeed!  And yet it is also a wonderful story, full of so much insight and wisdom.  Especially as we think about what it means for us to share our faith in our own lives here and now.

I want to invite you to crawl into this story with me this morning, to find yourself in company with Philip.  Wonder with me: what might we learn, from inside this story, about what it means to bear witness to the hope of our hearts?

Then an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Get up and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” (This is the wilderness road).  The first thing we learn, and this is the most important, is that sharing our faith is ultimately God’s work from beginning to end.  God is the central actor in this story.  Philip has a part to play, but it is in a supporting role!

An angel of the Lord, which in the Bible refers to God’s presence, is the One who calls Philip to act.  God initiates this whole thing that is about to happen.  God issues the call, gives the directions, and will be the One who empowers Philip to share.  This theological conviction is at the heart of any kind of ministry we do.  It is not ultimately about us!  It is always about God and how God is already at work. 

And where does God call Philip to go? Toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.  That’s as much detail that Philip gets at this point.  He doesn’t know why God is calling him to go this place, or what will happen when he gets there.  It’s a strange, unexpected place—a dangerous place.  This is the same road that the Good Samaritan travels on in Jesus’ parable—a dangerous road that was a den for robbers and thieves.  And yet this is the place God calls Philip to get up and go to.

How does Philip respond?  So he got up and went.  Like Ananias last week, Philip is flexible and available to God.   He is listening to God.  And when the call comes, even though he isn’t given much detail, he responds with obedience.  He goes.

And once he gets there, he happens to meet the most unexpected person—an Ethiopian eunuch who was a court official for the queen of the Ethiopians.   As an Ethiopian, this man would have been someone who, to the first century Jew, came from a more exotic place, someone who would have been an “outsider” to the Jewish community.  He is also someone who is an important man—a powerful and wealthy man who had much authority and power in the queen’s court.  He’s on his way home from Jerusalem, where he was worshipping at the Temple.

What’s so powerful in this story is that we see God’s Spirit on the move out beyond Jerusalem, into Samaria and Judea, and even to the ends of the earth.  The Ethiopian would have represented someone from the ends of the earth—a Gentile living in Timbuktu!  And yet this radical love of God in Christ is for all people!  The gospel crosses cultural boundaries and embraces everyone.

And what’s this man doing as he rides in is chariot?  He’s reading from the book of Isaiah!  Not only is God’s Spirit at work in calling Philip to go, but we see God’s Spirit at work in the mind and heart of this Ethiopian Eunuch, preparing him for his encounter with Philip!

What happens next?  Then the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over to this chariot and join it (or stay near it).” God is still in charge, giving the directions.  And Philip still has his ears and heart tuned to the Spirit’s leading. 

So Philip runs up to the chariot and stays near it, waiting on the Spirit’s timing.  And as he waits, he hears the Ethiopian reading from the book of Isaiah.  We’ve already seen the way that Philip is someone who listens to God.  Now we see that Philip has this same posture of listening with the Ethiopian, which tells us that maybe evangelism, sharing our faith, is first and foremost about learning to listen.  It’s about learning to listen with, what novelist John Steinbeck called “a good ear.”  Listening with a good ear is about listening to what is going on beneath the surface, listening to the lives of people we encounter, listening to their questions, their hurts, their hopes, their fears.  Would that change your view of evangelism if I told you the most important thing you can do is learn to really listen with a “good ear?”

It is only by listening first—without pretense, without judgment—that a way is made for Philip to enter into conversation and relationship with the Ethiopian.  He listens to what the Ethiopian is reading, listening even more deeply to the spiritual cry of the man’s heart, and he asks the question, “Do you understand what you are reading?”

And the Ethiopian replies, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And then I love the next part.  And he invited Philip to get in and sit beside him, which is another way of saying, “Come and sit in my chariot with me, come travel with me on the road of life.”   By listening first and being genuine in the way he related to the Ethiopian, Philip was welcomed into a relationship with this man.

Author and speaker Brian McLaren has suggested that being a witness, at its heart, is really a call to with-ness—to be with people: to be with people in the real stuff of life; to be with people in their pain; to be with people in their questions and doubts; to be with people in their joys and struggles.  The incarnation is all about the God who came to be with us; and we follow the pattern of Jesus when we learn to simply be with people. 

Think about your own faith journey.  Who are the people who have had the most significant influence in your own life?  Are they not those who genuinely cared about you and came alongside you and “got in the chariot” to be with you on the journey?

Most people long for authentic, meaningful relationships, and it is when we learn how to be with others, without an agenda, entering into friendship, that God opens up opportunities for us to share in natural, fruitful ways.  This is when they invite us into their chariot to travel down the road of life with them, having earned respect and trust and the right to be heard.

And that’s what happens with Philip.  He earns the right to be heard.  Traveling along together, the Ethiopian turns to Philip, and in reference to the passage he just read in Isaiah, asks him, “Tell me please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?”

This is the window of opportunity.  And Philip doesn’t get embarrassed or shrink away or change the conversation.  He tells the man about Jesus.  Clearly, plainly, genuinely, he shares his faith.  Then Philip began to speak, and starting with this scripture, he proclaimed to him the good news about Jesus.

One of the biggest obstacles I often hear from people about sharing their faith is, “I don’t know enough about the Bible.” And I would agree that it is important for all of us to be growing in our knowledge of Scripture so we can talk with people about Jesus.  But when it comes to sharing our faith, we don’t need to panic or get anxious about our knowledge of the Bible.  Our role, as we see in this story, is simply to introduce people to Jesus.  To share with others who Jesus is, what he means to us, and how he has changed our life.  We all have stories about how God is at work in our lives, and as Lindsay reminded us last Sunday, there are no “boring” stories.  Your story is your story, so share it.  Let the Holy Spirit work through your testimony of what Jesus means to you personally.

There is one last part of this story that I want us to highlight this morning, and it really is the climax.  As Philip and the Ethiopian travel together in the chariot, they come upon some water.  And the Ethiopian says, “Look, here is water!  What is to prevent me from being baptized?” And he gave orders to stop the chariot.  Then both of them, Philip and the eunuch, went down into the water and Philip baptized him. 

Baptism points to God’s promise, which is that we belong to Christ.  It is a sign and seal that we have been welcomed into God’s family, as one of God’s children.  It points to moving from being on “the outside,” so to speak, to being enfolded into the community of faith.  Our calling as witnesses is not just to go out and come alongside people and introduce them to Jesus; it’s to practice a radical hospitality that welcomes them into God’s family.  It is going beyond “out- reach” to embrace, as my good friend Denise Kingdom-Grier likes to say.

The eunuch asks a question, and it’s a great question.  What can prevent me from being baptized?  One way to interpret this question: What can keep me from becoming a part of God’s family?

One answer, and I’m sad to say it, is us, the church.  We can stand in the way of others being welcomed and included in the family of God.  When we keep others at a distance because they’re not like us or refuse to embrace others because they don’t have their theology all together or their life all together (not like we doJ--or pretend to, anyway)!  Or even this: when we don’t move beyond just being friendly and welcoming but really include others in our lives—open up our circles of friendships to make room for others.

I know I only have a few sermons left to preach as one of your pastors, and I want to make every sermon count.  Here is one of the ways I really want to challenge us as a congregation: Let’s go beyond outreach and being friendly to be the kind of church that is practicing “with-ness” by truly enfolding and embracing new people in our church family.  Will you go out of your way to come alongside some of our new members and connect with them on deep and meaningful levels?

I’ve pointed out a number of things from within this story, and as we wrap up, let me highlight what we’ve talked about:

• Sharing our faith is God’s work from beginning to finish.  It’s ultimately not about us!  We are simply God’s instruments.
• The most important posture for being a witness is the posture of deep listening—listening to God and listening to the lives of others.  And being willing to be obedient when the Holy Spirit prompts us.
• Sharing our faith happens best in the context of authentic relationships—learning to be “with” others, to ride with them in the chariot on the road of life.  When we earn the right to be heard, we trust God’s timing to open up an opportunity for us to share what Christ means to us—to tell our story.
• Beyond outreach, God calls us to embrace and welcome others into God’s family.  To enfold others into the circles of our friendships.

So what is the Spirit saying to you this morning?  To us?  Who is God calling you to come alongside?  Is there a name or a face that comes to mind today? Maybe it’s someone outside the walls of this church; maybe it’s someone within the walls. Think about the people God has placed around you. 

As we go into this week, I invite you to join me in assuming a posture of availability and deep listening, saying: “Lord, your servant is listening.  Direct me where to go and to whom to go.”

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

May 7, 2017
Lindsay Small
Acts 9:1-19

I think its probably safe to say that our culture loves a good before and after story.

You know the ones…they play themselves out on TV everyday.

HGTV has made millions by making every show about taking a rundown house and transforming it into something beautiful. The more ugly it is…the more before the before…the better the after.

The same could be said for weight loss, self-help stories, and makeovers…they are all based on this concept of before and after.

This is all well and fine. I love Chip and Joanna Gaines just as much as the next person…

But sometimes these extreme before and after stories can be problematic.

They can make those of us without brand new open concept kitchen cabinets hand sanded by Drew What’s his name…feel a little inadequate.

Those of us who haven’t lost 50 pounds in two weeks…haven’t been given a free new wardrobe…haven’t sat with Oprah in a forest…feel like we’re missing out on something.

We know that those of us are most of us. That what we see on TV is not the norm…even though it can begin to seem like everyone should be able to buy home for $100 and have remarkably good looking people renovate it.

It’s entertainment and fun…and harmless…as long as it doesn’t skew our view of reality. Ironic, isn’t it, that most of these shows are called “Reality TV?”

The before and after narrative runs deep in popular Christian culture as well.

I attended a high school youth conference at the University of Indiana when I was in 10th grade…its occurring to me that this is not the most timely illustration…

But even though it was almost 5 years ago…okay 25…I still remember the speakers all seemed to follow the same script:

I was bad. Really bad. And I did bad things. Then I found Jesus.

Then I didn’t do bad things anymore. Go and do likewise.

I don’t mean to take any of these stories lightly. For a 16 year old who was a pretty good kid it was good for me to hear stories of God’s grace reaching out to change lives.

But these stories have a way of quieting the quieter stories.

They can make our ordinary conversions feel a little bleak. Or perhaps you’re on the ‘before’ side of conversion…and you’re just not sure yet if you want to be in relationship with Jesus. (And its important to mention that there is room for you here in the place…to help you get to know who Jesus is…)

This is where radical before and after stories can be tricky.

As a pastor, when tasked with asking people to share their story…the most common response I am met with is: “Oh, I don’t have a very good story.” or “My testimony is not that exciting…”

I don’t believe it. And God doesn’t either.

Today’s passage is one of the most exciting and unexpected before and after stories in the Bible…but here’s the thing: there’s more to it than the flash! It takes longer than 60 minutes, or 43 with commercial breaks…there is an in between, a space between the before and after, that is rich with story and meaning for you and for me…

Listen now, as I read from Acts chapter 9…

Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues at

Damascus, so that if he found any who belonged to the Way, men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. 3 Now as he was going along and approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” 5 He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. 6 But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless because they heard the voice but saw no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 For three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

10 Now there was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.” 11 The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision[a] a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” 13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints in Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who invoke your name.” 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; 16 I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” 17 So Ananias went and entered the house. He laid his hands on Saul[b] and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored.

Then he got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

This passage begins right where we left off last week…literally.

The last verse of last week’s passage was, “But Saul was ravaging the church by entering house after house; dragging off both men and women, he committed them to prison.”

 And the first verse of this week’s passage is: “Meanwhile Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest…

 Dragging off men and women…putting them in prison…threats of murder…

This guy is on the before side of before….

Paul was determined to make life miserable…to the point of even ending the life…of anyone who followed Christ.

So the fact that God would choose Paul to carry his message to the ends of the earth is not something to be glossed over…

If Gallup had done some polling and asked, “Who is the LEAST likely person God would choose to be his messenger to the world?” 99 out of 100 people would have said, “Saul…” and the other 1 person would have said “Paul” but meant the same person.

God chooses this most unlikely person…the guy who has been locking up Christians…the guy who approved of Stephen’s murder! That’s who he chooses.

It is amazing. It is outlandish. And of course…it is of God.

This is a remarkable before and after story…especially since we can follow it through to the end…we know that because Saul’s “After” will be all about following and preaching Jesus…he will be the one in prison…he will be the one murdered for his faith.

Paul takes all the energy, all the will, all the determination that had been directed at persecuting Christians, and directs it into preaching the gospel relentlessly.

This is an amazing before and after story.

—

But there’s this space in the middle…somewhere between before and after…that deserves another look.

Saul has been blinded on the road to Damascus…and arrives there and does not eat or drink for three days.

And then…another person enters the story. A man named Ananias.

Now, we don’t know his conversion story…his before and after. We don’t know how he became a follower of Jesus. All we know is that he was sitting at home when the Lord called his name…and he answered.

Ananias is the lesser known character. The ordinary.

The often forgotten.

He is the Watson to Paul’s Sherlock Holmes. The Hermoine to his Harry Potter.

The Chewbacca to his Han Solo.

There is no great BEFORE AND AFTER moment in Ananias’ story…

But there is a present…an in-between moment…and its no less remarkable.

Ananias is faithful to his call from God in the moment…and in doing so, ushers in Paul’s great ‘after’…

—-

If you look closely at the passage, you see that God enters into conversation with both men the same way: he begins by saying their name. “Saul” “Ananias”

Now Saul and Jesus were not really on a first name basis…so he needed to start with introductions…

“Who are you Lord?”

But Ananias…his response is different:

“Here I am, Lord.”

He knew God. And it seems as though they’ve spoken before. And so he answers…making himself available before he even knows the request. He’s ready. He’s open. He’s willing to be interrupted.

Here I am Lord.

 Not, There I was…or There I will be. Not before or after…Now. Here I am Lord.

 One of the congregants at our last church loved to say that God asks us to be ‘flexible and available.’ I love that…and I think it’s great advice for all of you… Often times I am terrible at both of them…but not Ananias. He is flexible and available. (Here I am Lord)

Now of course, as soon as he hears what he’s supposed to do…he may have regretted answering.

The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul. At this moment he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision[a] a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.”

 God might as well asked Ananias to go to the moon.

Word had already reached the community of Christians in Damascus about Saul…they knew what he had done in Jerusalem and they maybe even knew he was on his way to pay them a visit…

This is the man they had been living in fear of…the man they were hoping to hide from…and now God is telling Ananias to go directly TO HIM.

He says, “Are you sure?” Yes, I’m sure.

And so he goes. And does exactly as the Lord tells him to do…

He laid his hands on Saul and said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on your way here, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” 18 And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored. Then he got up and was baptized, 19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength.

We don’t know Ananias’ before…we don’t know his after… But we know that he was present.

He laid his hands on Saul. He called him brother.

And healed him and baptized him.

 “Here I am Lord.”

He is working in ways we never thought imaginable…and uses us as his hands and feet to carry out this work…before and after…and the in between.

God used Ananias to transform Saul’s wretched before to a glorious after.

He needs people who are willing to be present, willing to be interrupted, willing to be flexible and available.

He is calling all of us by name…

For some of you, he has called you by name to make incredible journeys…to travel the world. To spread the gospel…to love in the name of Jesus to the least likely of places and spaces.

For others, he has called you by name to be present in this space…to lay hands, to pray for, to call others by name.

There is never a day that does not present an opportunity to say “Hear I am Lord.”

Where is God leading you?

What will be our response when God says to us, “Get up and go.”

God is in the before…in the after…and in the in between. Our task is to show up and say “Here I am.”

God,

Forgive us for missed opportunities. Lead us into new opportunities. New ways to say “Here I am Lord.” Today…and everyday.

April 30, 2017
Brian Keepers
Acts 7:54-8:3

April 23, 2017
Nate Schipper
Luke 24:13-35

April 16, 2017
Brian Keepers
Luke 24:1-12

When the women arrived at cemetery on that first Easter morning and found the tomb empty, to say that they were surprised would be a major understatement.

Amazed. Astonished. Bewildered. Confused. Even scared.

That’s more like it.

We may have all showed up this morning ready to exclaim, “Christ is Risen!” and sing our old time favorites like “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and hear the good, old story about the empty tomb, but not those dear women…nor the rest of the disciples.

Let’s just be clear. In order to grasp the amazement of Easter morning, the shocking surprise of the empty tomb, you must realize this: on that “first day of the week at early dawn” that Luke tells us about, no one was expecting Jesus to rise from the dead.

But wait, you say. Should it really have been that much of a surprise? After all, don’t the two men in dazzling clothes, presumably angels, sort of scold the women for not knowing this would happen? “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”

The angels were right. Jesus had told them this is how it would all unfold. Not just once but three times. Spelled it out pretty clearly. First back in Luke 9:21-22, then again in 9:44-45, and a third time even, right before Holy Week, in 18:31-34. He didn’t talk in some Rabbinic-Jedi code. No puzzling riddles. This was plain talk. Straightforward and direct.

So why are they so surprised? Each time Jesus foretold his death and resurrection, Luke tells us that the disciples (including these women) “understood nothing about all these things; in fact, what he said was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.”

Not because they weren’t smart. Not because they weren’t paying attention. But because this whole idea that the Messiah—the long awaited Savior who would rescue Israel from Roman oppression and the whole world with it—would suffer, die and rise again was completely foreign. It didn’t fit one bit within their mental framework of what the Messiah would be like.

First of all, the Messiah was coming to conquer, not be conquered. With the strength of a warrior or the political savvy of a diplomat, he would overthrow the bad guys, not be overthrown. But to be handed over to suffer—and to suffer in the worst possible way—the shame of a Roman Cross. Well, the Torah seemed clear that such a one was cursed by God. A suffering, dead Messiah was just another failed messiah, and history had handed down plenty of those.

And then there’s the whole “rise from the dead three days later” thing. While there were some among the Jewish community who didn’t believe in a resurrection of the dead (namely, the Saducees), most did. But here’s the thing. Their understanding of the resurrection of the dead was that it would happen at the end of time, when God would usher in his new creation, and it would happen all at once. Everyone at the same time. What they had no concept of was that one person would be resurrected in the middle of time!

So of course they didn’t grasp it when Jesus warned them that this is how it would go. That’s why they are so surprised, so astonished and bewildered and confused when they discover the empty tomb and hear the angel’s message. It was the last thing in the world that they were expecting. And here they are, grasped by the terrifying and glorious surprise of it all!

But maybe that’s the point of Easter. Not so much that we are able to fully grasp it—to fully understand it in all its mystery and wonder—but that we are grasped by it! What if the point is not that we are able to fully comprehend Easter but that our lives are fully apprehended by the love and power of the God who raised Jesus from the dead? God is bringing about new creation—that’s what the empty tomb means—and now we are drawn into it and transformed by it! In the words of Deitrich Bonhoeffer: “Bewilderment is true comprehension.”

That leads to the second big surprise in the story. The fact that these women—Mary Magdalene, Joanna, and Mary the mother of James (and the other women with them)—are the first ones grasped by the surprise of Easter and recipients of the Good News! They are the first ones to experience the dawn of God’s New Creation! They get a front row seat! They, of all people!

These women were dear friends of Jesus, part of his inner circle, had been with him since Galilee. But this is a partriarchial world, and women were among those on the margins—without influence, privilege and power. And yet here they are, being grasped by this new thing God is doing and pulled into the center of resurrection action!

Luke tells us that when the angels make the announcement, “Then they remembered his words…” Then they remembered his [Jesus’] words… But not just in the sense of recalling something they had forgotten. Like I said, these women are surprised because they just didn’t understand what Jesus was saying…then. But now, in light of Easter, something is changing. Something jumps in them, something comes alive! God was at work not only opening the tomb but opening their minds, and helping them to begin to understand what they previously didn’t.

One definition of remember is to “put back together the pieces” after something has been dismembered. Certainly their world, in the tragic wake of the crucifixion, had been dismembered. But now, they were putting the pieces together in their memory—for the first time beginning to see clearly! It’s less an “Oh, yeah, now I remember…” and more like an “Aha—now I’m starting to see it!” What had looked like a failed mission was turning out to be the fulfillment of God’s plan!

And in the act of remembering, it’s as if the same power that raised Jesus from the grave was at work re-membering them—putting the broken pieces of their lives back together, their shattered hopes and busted up dreams and broken hearts. God was taking them as they are and mending them, making then new and whole.

This is what God can do for each of us, in the power of Christ’s resurrection. He takes the broken pieces of our own lives, the debris of shattered relationships, busted up dreams and dead hopes. He takes each of us, as we are, and goes to work mending us, healing us, forgiving us, making us new. Making us whole again. Making us alive.

Listen to this story of someone who has experienced the surprising grace of God who, like the women at the tomb, takes us in all of our pieces and makes us whole again. I want to invite my dear friend Suzie Timmer to come up and share a part of her story today.

At this point in the sermon, Suzie shares her story.

And all of this leads to one more big surprise in this story of the first Easter. The news that Jesus has been raised, yes, shocking. The fact that these women were the first ones to discover the empty tomb, to experience God’s new world being born. But even more, its these women who are sent as the first unlikely witnesses to share this news with the disciples and the rest of the world.

We heard it in Suzie’s story. When she was grasped by the power of God’s love, her own life put back together and made new, there was a sense of vocation—of calling—that came with this. And we see this in the women at the first Easter. In being grasped by the good news of resurrection, and remembering Jesus’ words, they are now sent to be the first witness to tell this news to the world.

They are such unlikely witnesses! In the ancient world, women were not considered to be credible witnesses in the court of law. Many have pointed out that one of the reasons we can trust the witness of the gospels is that they leave this rather embarrassing detail of the story in—that the first witnesses of Easter were women. If you wanted to make an airtight argument for your case, you would have done better to brush this up—leave this part out or change some details to make it more credible. But all the gospel writers leave this important detail in—because it is most likely how it actually happened.

It’s one of the things I love most about Luke’s gospel. We’ve seen him from the beginning show that Jesus was really about drawing in those on the margins and bringing them to the center. Taking outcasts and folks who don’t fit in or have power or privilege and assigning them star roles in the unfolding drama of God’s mission. Who is it that is present at the first announcement of Jesus’ birth and called to go deliver the news? Lowly shepherds. And who is it that is at the first announcement of Jesus’ resurrection and sent to be heralds of this good news? Women who were without privilege and power.

So it is with us! As those who have been grasped by this good news, we are now empowered and sent to be unlikely witnesses—to help the world remember who God intends it to be, and to be a part of the Spirit’s work of helping the world be re-membered—put back together, healed, made whole. This is our calling—personally and all together as God’s people.

The truth is, it’s a Good Friday world. But Easter happens in a Good Friday world! The surprising, bewildering, glorious good news of Easter is that the risen Jesus is on the move to set it all right, heal it, restore it, make it new. To bring life out of death. Light out of darkness. Hope out of despair. Yes, it’s a Good Friday world, but we join the women at the empty tomb and are being transformed into an Easter People!

So hear the angels’ announcement today—whether for the first time or the hundredth—the surprising Good News that grasps ahold of us and sends us into the world:

“Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen. Remember…remember…remember how he told you that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again!”

Christ is Risen! He is Risen, indeed!

April 9, 2017
Lindsay Small
Luke 19:29-44

Two processions entered Jerusalem on a spring day. It was the beginning of the week of Passover, the most sacred week of the Jewish year….the week we now call Holy Week.

One was a peasant procession, the other an imperial procession.

From the east, Jesus rode a donkey down the Mount of Olives, cheered by his followers.

From the west…Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor – THE REPRESENTATIVE OF CAESER, himself, entered Jerusalem at the head of a column of imperial cavalry and soldiers.

Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God… Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire.

The two processions embody the central conflict of the week that led to Jesus’ crucifixion.

We really only ever hear about the more modest one…

You’ve seen the flannel graph…

Jesus approaches…down the Mount of Olives…to the city

surrounded by a crowd of enthusiastic followers and sympathizers, who spread their cloaks, strew leafy branches on the road, and shout,

“Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is coming king of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!”….”

 Jesus had SET HIS FACE towards Jerusalem for weeks…this was his destination. Every encounter, teaching, and miracle had led up to this moment.

But indeed there was another one…Caesar’s representatives always arrived during Jewish festivals – not to join in but to make sure that everyone knew that Caesar was Lord above any God.

Pilate’s military procession was a demonstration of both Roman Imperial power and Roman imperial theology…

The troops with Pilate would rise over the people at the Fortress Antonia, towering over the sacred Jewish temple and its courts….

Their presence was always seen, heard, and felt.

To be seen was a visual display of imperial power: cavalry on horses, foot soldiers, leather armor, helmets, weapons, banners, golden eagles mounted on poles, sun glinting on metal and gold.

To be heard was the marching of feet, the creaking of leather, the clinking of bridles, the beating of drums.

To be felt was the the swirling of dust in your eyes, and the low beat of the their drums and feet deep in your belly.

The silent onlookers, some curious, some awed, some resentful – all focused on a display who’s one mission was POWER.

This procession was not only imperial power but also imperial theology…. This is about a god…. Caesar was not simply the ruler of Rome, but the Son of God.

God has come to town AND HE IS ME!

Pilate’s procession embodied not only a rival social order, but also a rival theology to YHWH.

It was a parade to be remembered…interesting then, that the one that is

remembered…the one in every gospel…and in nearly every church today,

stars a carpenter, not a Caesar.

Meager disciples, not a cavalry of horses. and peasants, not soldiers.

This was a peasant procession…a planned counter-procession.

Jesus planned his arrival perfectly…and in true Jesus-fashion, problematically.

Jesus’ procession deliberately countered what was happening on the other side of the city.

 This is the book of Zechariah in the flesh:

Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Dale Bruner says, “We are struck by Jesus’ poor and ordinary provisions for this historic entry; no heralds at arms, no trumpet sounds, no chariots of state; no liveries, no prancing horses that a shy petitioner would be afraid to approach, no running horse that a slow-footed petitioner could not keep pace with, ‘but he comes on a quiet [donkey], that the poorest [and the smallest] of his subjects may not be discouraged in their access to him.”

Pilate’s procession embodied the power, glory, and violence of the empire that ruled the world.

Jesus procession embodied an alternative vision, the kingdom of God.

Two invitations are offered this morning:

-Will we attend the Roman procession of military power – Caesar

-or the peace procession of Jesus, the Messiah?

Palm Sunday is an invitation to place ourselves in Jerusalem at one end of the city or another…to announce that we seek either the Kingdom of God or a Human Kingdom…

 Now of course, when you put it like that…its such an easy choice. Of course… God over human. Jesus over Pilate. Donkey over horse.

How could we possibly make any other choice? But its not that easy…it never is for us.

What a great story this would be if Palm Sunday ended…you know, in a way that it doesn’t!

We enact this every year…waving the branches. Singing Hosanna…placing ourselves on the ‘good side’ of Jerusalem…And I wish this is how the story ended! That the east siders stayed loyal! Stayed connected! Stayed with Jesus.

But we know full well that those branches they were waving would wither and die within a week. They would be thrown aside…along with our songs and praises….and “Hosanna in the Highest” would turn to “Crucify Him.”

We know that soon enough Jesus would lead another procession…this time carrying a cross…

How did that humble procession head south so fast?

The problem is, Jesus’ followers had read ALL OF Zechariah’s prophecy…not just the donkey bit…but also the parts about commanding peace of the nations saving Israel…something about ruling from sea to sea.

And they maybe jumped to a few conclusions that were not entirely accurate.

In other words, they reached the destination before they even knew where Jesus was going!

“Ha! At next years parade…no more donkeys, no more ‘wrong side of town’, no more coats in the dirt…”

Next year…Jesus will come riding in on a noble steed…we’ll get confetti, we’ll get balloons!

We’ll finally get the savior we’ve always dreamed up! They wanted a savior…they just him their way.

Turns out these east side parade goers wanted to head across town with their savior… their emperor…their new Caesar.

Too bad no one asked Jesus about this…because this wasn’t anywhere near where he was going…

 He knew where this procession would ultimately lead…and he knew that once everything was said and done…very few would be left following him.

 They had chosen the destination without asking Jesus if that was actually where he was going.

—-

Many of you have just returned from Spring Break journeys…or back from winters down south…or trips to Zealand (really any journey works).

Our family got back yesterday from Asheville, NC…our faithful minivan of 10 years had not one, not two, but three separate ‘incidents’ along the way…and so the relief of reaching a destination is fresh in my mind.

For those of you who have ever driven south…you know what its like to drive back. And when you reach that Michigan border…Sweet Moses…you can taste it.

Your home…your bed…getting out of the car…and every time it seems as though Holland has been moved 100 miles further north than it was the last time.

Of course by now, the snacks are gone, the movies all watched, the devices are dead… and the barometric pressure starts rising…and you find yourself saying things like “don’t make me come back there,” even though you swore you would NEVER say that.

You just want to get home.

Jesus’ journey had lasted the course of his ministry…and the crowd seemed to know that it was about finished.

They had dreamt about this destination: the Roman Empire overturned, Herod toppled…freedom for Israel! Glory and restoration recovered!

It was so close.

And so when Jesus veers off course right around the Michigan border…you can understand why people got so upset.

Truth be told, if Kyle had taken the 1-90 exit for Chicago…there may have been a ‘fourth’ incident with our minivan.

This was not the ending they had so clearly marked out for Jesus…’it says right here on my phone…that your route leads you to the fortress…leads to you the empire…and leads US to freedom.

But they hadn’t bothered to ask for directions…

 They had wanted so desperately for their current situation to be solved…for the oppression to end…for a David-like King to reign again…that they filled the route and the destination…

Sadly, their route merged with the other procession…or at least echoed it. They despised the Romans on the one hand and longed to take their place on the other…

…their entire image of Savior sprung out of the their hatred for their oppressors.

And while it is true that they were not fairly treated, that they were under represented and disadvantaged…this is not the fertile soil to grow visions of a Savior.

Anne Lamott, says “You really know when you’ve made Jesus into your own image. When your God ends up hating the same people you hate.”

Lamott’s words are too true for all of us – what does the king look like in your image? What would, or maybe what does King Jesus exemplify falsely for us?

There are two groups meeting right now at Fellowship going through what is called, “The Colossian Way.” It's a simple process that encourages us all to “act like Christians in the face of conflict.” One of the things I love about it is that it does not attempt to change anyone’s mind about anything. It simply invites you to a posture of seeking to understand other perspectives.

In our last session, we talked about how it is amazing that any two thoughtful people can look at the same situation and come to completely different conclusions. One of the explanations for this is something called ‘confirmation bias.’…

This is simply a reality of how our brains work…as we start learning about something….we quickly form a hypothesis about what is true. When we think we know what’s going on…we tend to over-convince ourselves rather than allow that we may be wrong. We block ourselves off from other possible solutions…

 In other words, we follow the path to the destination before we really know where’s its going.

Jesus’ followers…they had learned the prophesies…they had heard bits and pieces of Jesus teaching…or at least gossip about who he has…and they were living in an extremely oppressive society.

It is easy to imagine how their confirmation bias was more of a desperate bias. Rescue us! Save us! Help us!

And here he comes! He must be about to do what we want him to do!

But the Jesus we want is not the Jesus who arrives. The Jesus who arrives is the Jesus we need.

In the face of oppression, he pursues peace. In the face of poverty, he gives everything.

In the face of humiliation, he accepts humility. We do not need a Caesar…we need a Savior.

In the west-bound procession…Jesus makes a powerful statement about kingship.

Those of us who stay by his side do the same in our followership.

It's interesting to me…palms are not mentioned in the book of Luke. Coats are. Twice.

People took off their outer garments and laid them literally on a donkey…and along a path where donkeys walk. Luke was more concerned with what the crowd was laying down than what they were waving around.

As they lay down their coats, Jesus is preparing to lay down his life.

Our Savior is the king of compassion, peace, and grace…thanks be to God.

If he weren’t in this manner – if he came in our ways – if he came on a steed, donning a sword, then he might face us with judgment, power and violence, anger and might.

The king named Jesus approaches us the same way he approached those who crucified him – holy, peaceful and generous, selfless, and riding on a donkey accessible to all of us. That’s our king!

The good news is that with gentility, hope and goodness Christ comes to reign on this earth.

We fail Jesus every time we place him in our immediate, over-extended, self-centered, instantly gratified expectations. But through his grace, he looks past our sin of expectation and comes in his kingly love and generosity.

Will we allow Christ to lead us to places we have not even imagined? Will we stay with him even when the road becomes hard?

Will we lay down our comfort for the sake of another?

These are Palm Sunday questions…these are Holy Week Questions…these are Kingdom questions.

We’re at the Michigan border…the hardest part of the journey is up ahead…

May we have the courage to finish the journey with Christ…all the way to the cross…dying to our selfish expectations…and filled with wonder for what is to come.

April 2, 2017
Brian Keepers
Luke 19:1-19

I can’t hear this story of Zacchaeus without thinking of “the song.” You know “the song,” right?

Zacchaeus was a wee little man,
and a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in a sycamore tree,
for the Lord he wanted to see.
And when the Savior passed that way,
he looked up in the tree.
And he said, “Zacchaeus, you come down!”
For I’m going to your house today!
For I’m going to your house today!

It’s a memorable little song, and a cute way to remember the story. But if we are to understand just how radical and surprising this story is, we’re going to need to go beyond the cute Sunday school images of Zacchaeus as a wee little man perched in a sycamore tree.

Here’s the thing: Zacchaeus is not a good man. He’s a cheat and a scoundrel- a greedy man who uses his privilege and power to exploit others and seek his own gain. Luke tells us that he is “a chief tax collector.” Tax collectors were among the most despised people in Jewish society. Even today, working for the IRS doesn’t win you a lot of friends and influence, but it was far worse in the ancient times.

Tax collectors worked for the Roman government, who were oppressing the Jewish people by levying oppressive taxes on them. All of this money was sent back to Rome to make the Roman citizens there wealthier, and it left towns like Jericho impoverished. The only people who lived in comfort and ease were the tax collectors, who were traitors and sell-outs. Everyone despised the tax collectors, and the Jewish community considered them “unclean”—sinners.

But Zacchaeus wasn’t just a tax collector, he was a chief tax collector, which meant that he was getting filthy rich by being in charge of other tax collectors, and they were taking advantage of the people, guilty of what we would call today “extortion.”

Zacchaeus would have been one of the wealthiest and most hated men in all of Jericho. Luke tells us that Jesus is passing through Jericho, on his way to Jerusalem for the Passover. Jesus doesn’t intend to stop and spend the night in Jericho, which would have been a major disappointment to the community. This is an honor/shame culture, and to have someone who had reached the celebrity status of Jesus spend the night in your town would have brought great honor to the whole community.

But for some reason, Jesus decides to just pass through. Zacchaeus, this despised chief tax collector, wants to see Jesus. Maybe he was just curious like everybody else, and wanted to get a chance to see this candidate for the Messiah that everybody was so excited about. Or maybe there was something in his heart, though he was a rich man, that still felt restless--like he was missing something and wondered if Jesus might be a clue to that yearning. Luke doesn’t tell us why Zacchaeus wants to see Jesus; all we know is that he is eager to do so. No, eager is not a strong enough word. The Greek is more like desperate…Zacchaeus was desperate to see Jesus.

But he, like some of us, was height-challenged! And the crowd hated him so much there was no way they’d let him jostle to the front of the crowd. So in his desperation, Zacchaeus does something that no honorable man in this culture would do. He runs. A grown man running was a deeply humiliating act. And he climbs a sycamore tree. This, too, would have brought him ridicule. But again, Zacchaeus is desperate. He just wants to see Jesus.

As Jesus is parading through the throng of people, he reaches the end of the city limits and looks up into the tree and sees Zacchaeus hiding. He tells Zacchaeus to hurry and come down, for he’s changed his mind. Jesus has decided that he is going to stay overnight in Jericho. But to the astonishment of everyone—including Zacchaeus—Jesus decides he’s going to stay with Jericho’s most hated and scandalous citizen.

You would have expected Jesus to pick the most honorable, righteous, morally upright person in the community. Especially as a Rabbi, he should have picked one of the Pharisees or other priests—after all, Jericho was a lot like Holland, Michigan—it was a “city of priests.” They were everywhere!

But who does Jesus pick? Are you kidding me? The most dishonorable, despised, morally-flawed person in the community? That would be like Pope Francis coming to Holland and picking the chief drug dealer in the community and going over to stay at his house.

And here we see the extravagant and generous love of God on full display in Jesus. Jesus, the chief of generous givers, moves toward Zacchaeus, the chief of greedy sinners. And the crowd is shocked. They grumble. “What’s he thinking going to the house of a sinner? “

And let me tell you now just what Jesus is doing. Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where he will generously give his life on a Roman cross for the sins of all the Zacchaeuses of the world, which turns out to be every single one of us, no matter how righteous we think we are. Jesus would take on our shame and disgrace, and generously give us forgiveness and new life.

That’s what he’s already doing here for Zacchaeus. In this act of generous love, by choosing to go and stay at Zacchaeus’ house, Jesus is taking all the hostility that the community had targeted on Zacchaeus and putting it on himself. They would now redirect their hostility toward Jesus. “ Who is this man, anyway? What’s he doing being a guest with a sinner?”

Not only that, but by going to Zacchaeus’ house, Jesus was being made unclean. If Jesus would sit in his chair, have table fellowship with Zacchaeus, sleep in one of his spare beds, all of this would defile Jesus and, according to Jewish law, make him morally unclean. Is this any way a Messiah should behave on the eve of the Passover?

Jesus takes on Zacchaeus’uncleanliness, and he gives him a new status. The most hated man in town now is the host of honor for the Messiah. By embracing Zacchaeus, Jesus is telling the community to embrace him as well. Jesus would say he is a Son of Abraham, he is part of God’s covenant people. Don’t shun him anymore.

And what happens to Zacchaeus when he experiences this kind of generous love and acceptance? His heart gets transformed. How can you not when you encounter this kind of amazing grace in the person of Jesus Christ? Zacchaeus stands up before the Lord and says, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

The Mosaic Law required that 10 percent—a tithe—be given back to God. That would have been sufficient. But Zacchaeus goes well beyond the tithe. Why? Not because he had to; not because he was obligated to do so; but because his heart had been transformed by God’s generosity and he wanted to give more. For Zaachaeus, this is not just about being generous, but it is also tied to justice. He has wronged these people, and now he will make it right. He will give back not just what he extorted from others but he will repay them four times!

Jesus says to Zacchaeus, “Today, salvation has come to your house.” But let’s just be clear. He is not saying this because Zacchaeus promises to live a generous life. No, salvation had already come to his house in the person of Jesus—from that moment Jesus spotted him up in the sycamore tree and embraced him. Zacchaeus chooses to live this kind of generous life because he has experienced salvation, and that has transformed his heart. He wants to give generously to others as an act of gratitude to God and because he now sees that abundant life in Christ has not to do with accumulating more but opening his hands to give away.

This is such a powerful story. I can’t help but think of Paul’s words is 2nd Corinthians 8:9 when he writes, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”

For Zacchaeus sake, Jesus, who was rich, became poor. And Zacchaeus the “rich” man is now truly made rich. Jesus has done this for you, as well. For your sake and mine, he became poor so that we might become rich. Not rich in the material sense but rich in life, love, joy, freedom and generosity. Rich in the sense of becoming who God designed us to be—who we most desire to be—fully human and fully alive.

Jesus transforms our hearts so that we might live into a more generous life. Let me say one final thing about this. While it is true that a generous life flows from a transformed heart, it is also true that practicing generosity leads to a heart that is more deeply transformed. Generosity is not only the fruit of a transformed heart; it is also the path by which our heart experiences ongoing-transformation.

I believe this is one of the most important reasons why God invites us into the flow of his own generous life. We are called to serve by practicing generosity—like Zacchaeus to go beyond the minimum of what is required of us—because it is a primary way that the Holy Spirit draws us closer to God and makes us more like Christ. It is also a primary way that God works transformation—healing and justice—in the lives of others. Through our generosity, God changes the lives of others, even as he changes our lives as we give.

As so many of you know, a group of us just returned from a week-long mission trip to Nicaragua. Nicaragua is one of our new mission focus partners, and it was an incredible trip. We can’t wait to share stories with you of how we encountered Christ at work—and we’ll be doing that in the near future. But let me tell you one story this morning about a woman who encountered God’s radical love in Christ, and how her heart and hands overflowed with generosity.

Her name is Rosillo, and she lives in a rural village just outside of Managua, the capital city of Nicragua. It’s a remote place, a place of extreme poverty as only recently did they get electricity and running water. This happened through a ministry called CEPAD, which goes into the poorest villages like this one and works with leaders in the community to provide resources and opportunities for community development. Rosillo is a leader in her community. Unlike Zacchaeus, she is loved and greatly respected. CEPAD worked with Rosillo and gave her seeds for a variety of fruits and vegetables and taught her how to plant, grow and harvest her own crops (organically).

So on this day that we visit the village, Rosillo brings us to her house and shows us such beautiful hospitality. It’s a crude little house with a tin roof and, literally, a dirt floor. Three rooms—a kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom where 9 people sleep. Her husband is in Costa Rica working as there are no jobs for him in Nicaragua. Rosillo stays behind to care for the crops and run the household. She is a remarkable woman—kind, smart, and a deep love for the Lord. She and her husband have five children of her own, but they’ve also taken in two of her nieces because they had nowhere else to go.

She proudly shows us around her little farm, pointing out all the different fruits and vegetables she’s learned to grow—bananas, pineapples, mangos, watermelon, peppers, squash, and more. She plucks them off the tree or the plant, before they are fully ripe, and hands them out to us to eat, with a smile on her face.

We ask her, “What do you do with all the crop? Do you have enough to feed your family?”

“Oh, yes,” she says. “More than enough! God has been so good to me, to us! And so I give it away—to the village, to those who don’t have enough.” Then she gestures to the farm with her hand: “None of this is mine; it all belongs to God.”

Like Zacchaeus, Rosillo is a woman who has encountered the generous, extravagant love of Christ—a love that has saved not just her soul, but impacted every aspect of her life. And she can’t help but open her heart and hands to others and serve her community by being generous. Here is a woman who, by our standards, is still in “poverty.” But by God’s standards, she is so, so rich—and we are all moved by her generous spirit.

Do you know this Jesus, who sees us as we are, and loves us as we are in order to make us all that God desires us to become? Do you have a relationship with him? This is where it all begins. He, who is rich, became poor—gave his life on the cross—so that we, who are spiritually impoverished, might become rich.

And as we encounter this generous love of God in Christ, how is it then moving your heart towards more generous living? As we follow Jesus to Jerusalem, as we get closer to Holy Week and make our way to the Cross and the Empty Tomb, what would it look like for you to serve by opening your heart and your hands to others? This becomes one of the most powerful ways we can join God’s mission,A and bear witness to the way that salvation has come to our house today!

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.