Fellowship Reformed Church of Holland

January 22, 2017
Lindsay Small
Luke 5:1-11

January 22, 2017
Lindsay Small
Luke 5:1-11

January 15, 2017
Brian Keepers
Luke 4:14-30

There's a story about when Martin Luther King was a little boy, he was sitting in church with his mother, listening to his father preach with his typical flamboyance and conviction.

Little Martin looked up at his mother and said, "Mama, when I grow up I'm going to get me some big words."

And of course, we all know that when Martin grew up, he did just that. He got himself some big words. These big words were on display, most famously, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before thousands of people when he spoke out, "I have a dream today...” Tomorrow we commemorate Dr. King and his legacy of justice and racial equality.

Martin's big words were more than just powerful rhetoric. They stirred the conscience of a nation. They evoked a response. Many praised his big words and were inspired with hope and courage. Others were threatened by these words, filled with anger and hatred. In the end, it was Martin's big words, and the way he acted on them, that would get him killed.

In the story we just heard from Luke's Gospel, Jesus has got some big words of his own, and they almost get him killed as well. After being baptized by John in the Jordan River, Jesus is led out into the wilderness for forty days, where he is tempted by the devil. Then Jesus returns to Galilee, "filled with the power of the Spirit" and ready to begin his public ministry.

Jesus travels throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues. Luke tells us that Jesus was praised by everyone and his reputation spreads through the whole country. Then he comes to Nazareth, his hometown. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. At the end of the service, the time comes when a section from one of the Prophets is read before the community is dismissed. Any young man from the community could do the reading and make a comment on the passage if he wished.

So the attendant brings out the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. Jesus stands up and volunteers to read. He unrolls the scroll and he finds Isaiah 61:1-2:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. "

When he finished reading, Jesus rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant, and sits down. Luke tells us, "The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him." They were waiting for him to say something about this Scripture. In the synagogue, one stood to read Scripture, and then sat down to teach. After a long silence, finally Jesus speaks. Jesus speaks nine words­ nine really big words:

"Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. "

What does Jesus mean? Isaiah 61:1-2 prophecies about God's coming reign- the new age when God's kingdom will break into the present and bring the restoration of shalom- peace with justice. This will be good news for the poor and bring liberation to the oppressed and recovery of sight to the blind. It will be the year of Jubilee, a time when all debts are forgiven. The year of Jubilee became symbolic for the time when God's new age would dawn and he would bring salvation and forgiveness to his people.

So when Jesus says today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, he is saying something remarkable: Today this kingdom is breaking in! Right here and now! It is fulfilled not just in Jesus' words, but in his very person!

When the crowd first hears these big words, they are impressed! People lean over and say to each other, "Wow, he speaks so well--with such authority and eloquence!" "Isn't that Joseph's boy? Well I'll be darned. Where'd he learn to speak like that?"

Was it only his speaking ability that amazed them? Luke tells us that they were amazed at the "gracious words" that came from his mouth, which implies "the words of grace" about which he spoke--about how God will graciously bring salvation to his people.

But Isaiah speaks of a big grace- a grace that extends beyond just the Israelites. And by the first century, so much of the Jewish community had forgotten this. They envisioned God's Messiah bringing salvation to God's people and terrible vengeance to the Gentiles, especially Israel's enemies. The hometown crowd does not understand just how big and deep and wide is God's grace. Nor do they understand what Jesus is saying about himself, that he is the Messiah. After all, he's their hometown boy. He grew up with their kids... just an ordinary guy.

So Jesus goes on to make his point. And this is what gets him in trouble. Jesus says to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!" And you will say, "Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum. Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown."

It is what Jesus says next that really riles them up. They will not accept him, nor will they accept just how big and wide is God' s grace. They are stuck in their narrow ways of thinking about the Messiah and the Kingdom of God.

So Jesus references two illustrations from the low point in Israel's history-the days of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha. These were days when the Israelites were blind to God because of their own disobedience. Elijah was sent to help a widow, but not a Jewish one.

Elisha was sent to heal a solitary leper, but that leper was not Jewish either. In fact, he was the commander of the enemy army! The point: God's big grace was being extended beyond Israel to those who were outsiders, even enemies! In other words, Israel's God was rescuing the wrong people!

Suddenly, it seems like Jesus'big words of big grace really start to sink in. And they are filled with rage! This is not the message they wanted to hear! And so they tum on Jesus. They kick him out of the synagogue, hustle him out of town, drive him up to the edge the cliff to throw him over.

There is a sadness and a sober warning in this story. You can hear the voice of Gospel of John dub over the scene: "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God."(1:10-13).

Jesus' big words are being spoken to us today as well. He is risen and among us, and he calls us to accept him, to believe in him, to put our trust in him. But be warned: he is not the Messiah we expect him to be. We cannot put him in a box or force him to fit into what we want. We must take him on his own terms.

And to accept Jesus' big words about himself is also to accept his big words of grace for others, especially those we consider "outsiders." To choose to stand with Jesus is to choose to stand with those Jesus loves-the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed, the weak and the vulnerable. It is to take up Jesus mission to extend this grace to all people, even our enemies.

This is where it gets so hard. We like the idea of extending grace to all people until we have to actually do it. Until we have to actually show mercy and forgiveness to the people who have hurt us, who seek to harm us, whom we deeply dislike or judge to be undeserving of grace.

In his book A Grace Revealed, Gerry Sittser tells the story of a woman named Sunday Pearson, whose brother, a young California police officer, was shot and killed in a drug bust. The accused murderer, a drug dealer named Fred, was convicted and thrown in prison.

Sunday did her best to pick up the pieces of her life. By God's grace, over time she was able to forgive Fred and move on. She and her husband reared their children and she excelled at her vocation. She rarely thought about Fred.

Twenty-five years later, Fred started to come to her mind more often. This is strange, she thought. Then one night, she heard God tell her that he wanted her to meet Fred. "Isn't it enough that I have forgiven him?" She asked God. To which God replied, "No, it isn't enough." Then God gave her a message for Fred: "Tell Fred I love him. Tell him I love him so much that I sent my only Son, Jesus, to die for his sins." That was the first part of the message. But there was a second one, too. "Tell Fred that it is not too late to become the man that I designed him to be."

Although she was initially confused and troubled by this, she obeyed God. After much hassle working through the prison bureaucracy, Sunday finally was able to schedule a meeting with Fred in the prison four hours away.

When Sunday arrived at the prison and made her way through security, her mind drifted back to her brother. She thought of all those years of suffering-the life of her brother cut so short, a wife and children left behind, a family bewildered and devastated by such a senseless act of violence.

The loud clang of the security door behind her jarred her thoughts back to the present.

Once she was searched and cleared by the guard, she made her way to the visitation room and sat down at a table in the comer. After several minutes, she heard the steel door open and, turning around, looked for the first time into the face of the man who killed her brother. She stood up, walked over to him, and taking his trembling hand, greeted him warmly. At that moment she was overcome with feelings of pity and compassion for this broken and terrified man who stood before her, his head bowed in shame.

They talked briefly. Fred expressed regret and apologized for the wrong he had done and the suffering he had caused. Then Sunday delivered her two messages. "God loves you so much," she told Fred, "that he sent Jesus to die for you." And then, "It's not too late to become the man that God designed you to be."

They talked for quite a while, and in the course of that conversation, Sunday experienced a miracle. Fred committed his life to Jesus Christ. This began a warm fiiendship that she and Fred continue to this day.

What an astonishing tum of events. This isn't the way the world works. A woman reaching out and extending grace to the man who murdered her brother? Someone who should be her enemy, the object of her hatred and bitterness, embraced as a fiiend? Where did she get the courage to do this? How did she find the words? It was Jesus who inspired her, his grace that overflowed from her heart and gave her courage. It was God who gave her big words of her own.

"Today," says Jesus, "this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Today, in Jesus, grace flows out and is offered to us all.

Are you, like Fred, in a place where you need to hear these words of grace? Listen: God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to die for you. Embrace him. Put your faith in him. It's not too late to become the person that God designed you to be. Now is the time. Today is the day.

Or maybe you are being called to extend grace to someone else, someone for whom it is very hard to show grace. Everything within you wants to stay angry, to get even, to see them get what they have coming. Perhaps God is giving you his big words to go and proclaim to them, perhaps God wants to use you as his instrument of grace.

For us all, it is only because of God's big words of grace, words embodied by Jesus himself, that we can be forgiven, set free, made whole. It is only because God loves us so much that Jesus came to die on the cross for us that we can finally become the persons God designed us to be!

 Praise be to God for his big words of Amazing Grace!

January 15, 2017
Brian Keepers
Luke 4:14-30

There's a story about when Martin Luther King was a little boy, he was sitting in church with his mother, listening to his father preach with his typical flamboyance and conviction.

Little Martin looked up at his mother and said, "Mama, when I grow up I'm going to get me some big words."

And of course, we all know that when Martin grew up, he did just that. He got himself some big words. These big words were on display, most famously, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial before thousands of people when he spoke out, "I have a dream today...” Tomorrow we commemorate Dr. King and his legacy of justice and racial equality.

Martin's big words were more than just powerful rhetoric. They stirred the conscience of a nation. They evoked a response. Many praised his big words and were inspired with hope and courage. Others were threatened by these words, filled with anger and hatred. In the end, it was Martin's big words, and the way he acted on them, that would get him killed.

In the story we just heard from Luke's Gospel, Jesus has got some big words of his own, and they almost get him killed as well. After being baptized by John in the Jordan River, Jesus is led out into the wilderness for forty days, where he is tempted by the devil. Then Jesus returns to Galilee, "filled with the power of the Spirit" and ready to begin his public ministry.

Jesus travels throughout Galilee teaching in the synagogues. Luke tells us that Jesus was praised by everyone and his reputation spreads through the whole country. Then he comes to Nazareth, his hometown. He goes to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. At the end of the service, the time comes when a section from one of the Prophets is read before the community is dismissed. Any young man from the community could do the reading and make a comment on the passage if he wished.

So the attendant brings out the scroll from the prophet Isaiah. Jesus stands up and volunteers to read. He unrolls the scroll and he finds Isaiah 61:1-2:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, 
because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. "

When he finished reading, Jesus rolls up the scroll, hands it back to the attendant, and sits down. Luke tells us, "The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him." They were waiting for him to say something about this Scripture. In the synagogue, one stood to read Scripture, and then sat down to teach. After a long silence, finally Jesus speaks. Jesus speaks nine words­ nine really big words:

"Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. "

What does Jesus mean? Isaiah 61:1-2 prophecies about God's coming reign- the new age when God's kingdom will break into the present and bring the restoration of shalom- peace with justice. This will be good news for the poor and bring liberation to the oppressed and recovery of sight to the blind. It will be the year of Jubilee, a time when all debts are forgiven. The year of Jubilee became symbolic for the time when God's new age would dawn and he would bring salvation and forgiveness to his people.

So when Jesus says today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing, he is saying something remarkable: Today this kingdom is breaking in! Right here and now! It is fulfilled not just in Jesus' words, but in his very person!

When the crowd first hears these big words, they are impressed! People lean over and say to each other, "Wow, he speaks so well--with such authority and eloquence!" "Isn't that Joseph's boy? Well I'll be darned. Where'd he learn to speak like that?"

Was it only his speaking ability that amazed them? Luke tells us that they were amazed at the "gracious words" that came from his mouth, which implies "the words of grace" about which he spoke--about how God will graciously bring salvation to his people.

But Isaiah speaks of a big grace- a grace that extends beyond just the Israelites. And by the first century, so much of the Jewish community had forgotten this. They envisioned God's Messiah bringing salvation to God's people and terrible vengeance to the Gentiles, especially Israel's enemies. The hometown crowd does not understand just how big and deep and wide is God's grace. Nor do they understand what Jesus is saying about himself, that he is the Messiah. After all, he's their hometown boy. He grew up with their kids... just an ordinary guy.

So Jesus goes on to make his point. And this is what gets him in trouble. Jesus says to them, "Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, 'Doctor, cure yourself!" And you will say, "Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum. Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet's hometown."

It is what Jesus says next that really riles them up. They will not accept him, nor will they accept just how big and wide is God' s grace. They are stuck in their narrow ways of thinking about the Messiah and the Kingdom of God.

So Jesus references two illustrations from the low point in Israel's history-the days of the great prophets Elijah and Elisha. These were days when the Israelites were blind to God because of their own disobedience. Elijah was sent to help a widow, but not a Jewish one.

Elisha was sent to heal a solitary leper, but that leper was not Jewish either. In fact, he was the commander of the enemy army! The point: God's big grace was being extended beyond Israel to those who were outsiders, even enemies! In other words, Israel's God was rescuing the wrong people!

Suddenly, it seems like Jesus'big words of big grace really start to sink in. And they are filled with rage! This is not the message they wanted to hear! And so they tum on Jesus. They kick him out of the synagogue, hustle him out of town, drive him up to the edge the cliff to throw him over.

There is a sadness and a sober warning in this story. You can hear the voice of Gospel of John dub over the scene: "He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God."(1:10-13).

Jesus' big words are being spoken to us today as well. He is risen and among us, and he calls us to accept him, to believe in him, to put our trust in him. But be warned: he is not the Messiah we expect him to be. We cannot put him in a box or force him to fit into what we want. We must take him on his own terms.

And to accept Jesus' big words about himself is also to accept his big words of grace for others, especially those we consider "outsiders." To choose to stand with Jesus is to choose to stand with those Jesus loves-the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed, the weak and the vulnerable. It is to take up Jesus mission to extend this grace to all people, even our enemies.

This is where it gets so hard. We like the idea of extending grace to all people until we have to actually do it. Until we have to actually show mercy and forgiveness to the people who have hurt us, who seek to harm us, whom we deeply dislike or judge to be undeserving of grace.

In his book A Grace Revealed, Gerry Sittser tells the story of a woman named Sunday Pearson, whose brother, a young California police officer, was shot and killed in a drug bust. The accused murderer, a drug dealer named Fred, was convicted and thrown in prison.

Sunday did her best to pick up the pieces of her life. By God's grace, over time she was able to forgive Fred and move on. She and her husband reared their children and she excelled at her vocation. She rarely thought about Fred.

Twenty-five years later, Fred started to come to her mind more often. This is strange, she thought. Then one night, she heard God tell her that he wanted her to meet Fred. "Isn't it enough that I have forgiven him?" She asked God. To which God replied, "No, it isn't enough." Then God gave her a message for Fred: "Tell Fred I love him. Tell him I love him so much that I sent my only Son, Jesus, to die for his sins." That was the first part of the message. But there was a second one, too. "Tell Fred that it is not too late to become the man that I designed him to be."

Although she was initially confused and troubled by this, she obeyed God. After much hassle working through the prison bureaucracy, Sunday finally was able to schedule a meeting with Fred in the prison four hours away.

When Sunday arrived at the prison and made her way through security, her mind drifted back to her brother. She thought of all those years of suffering-the life of her brother cut so short, a wife and children left behind, a family bewildered and devastated by such a senseless act of violence.

The loud clang of the security door behind her jarred her thoughts back to the present.

Once she was searched and cleared by the guard, she made her way to the visitation room and sat down at a table in the comer. After several minutes, she heard the steel door open and, turning around, looked for the first time into the face of the man who killed her brother. She stood up, walked over to him, and taking his trembling hand, greeted him warmly. At that moment she was overcome with feelings of pity and compassion for this broken and terrified man who stood before her, his head bowed in shame.

They talked briefly. Fred expressed regret and apologized for the wrong he had done and the suffering he had caused. Then Sunday delivered her two messages. "God loves you so much," she told Fred, "that he sent Jesus to die for you." And then, "It's not too late to become the man that God designed you to be."

They talked for quite a while, and in the course of that conversation, Sunday experienced a miracle. Fred committed his life to Jesus Christ. This began a warm fiiendship that she and Fred continue to this day.

What an astonishing tum of events. This isn't the way the world works. A woman reaching out and extending grace to the man who murdered her brother? Someone who should be her enemy, the object of her hatred and bitterness, embraced as a fiiend? Where did she get the courage to do this? How did she find the words? It was Jesus who inspired her, his grace that overflowed from her heart and gave her courage. It was God who gave her big words of her own.

"Today," says Jesus, "this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing." Today, in Jesus, grace flows out and is offered to us all.

Are you, like Fred, in a place where you need to hear these words of grace? Listen: God loves you so much that he sent Jesus to die for you. Embrace him. Put your faith in him. It's not too late to become the person that God designed you to be. Now is the time. Today is the day.

Or maybe you are being called to extend grace to someone else, someone for whom it is very hard to show grace. Everything within you wants to stay angry, to get even, to see them get what they have coming. Perhaps God is giving you his big words to go and proclaim to them, perhaps God wants to use you as his instrument of grace.

For us all, it is only because of God's big words of grace, words embodied by Jesus himself, that we can be forgiven, set free, made whole. It is only because God loves us so much that Jesus came to die on the cross for us that we can finally become the persons God designed us to be!

 Praise be to God for his big words of Amazing Grace!

Christmas Eve 2016
Brian Keepers
Isaiah 9:1-2, & Luke 2:1-20
 

A pastor was preaching on Christmas Eve, and his sermon went quite long. His thoughts were scattered, he rambled on, it was difficult to follow. When he was greeting after the service, one parishioner surprised him when she commented, “Pastor, your sermon tonight reminded me of God’s peace and love.”

The pastor was flattered. “Really? How so?” he asked.

“Well, it reminded me of God’s peace in the way it surpassed all understanding! And it reminded me of God’s love because it seemed to endure forever!”

I’d like to share with you some thoughts tonight, and while I’m all about God’s peace and love, I do hope I might avoid both of these pitfalls!

Let’s pray…

There’s a story about a an old Jewish man who would get up at the break of dawn and go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem (also called “the Wailing Wall”), and he would pray fervently from morning to evening. One day, a journalist from the London Times, who’d observed him do this day after day, asked him: “You come every day to the wall. How long have you done this and what are you praying for?”

The old man replied, “I have come here to pray every day for 25 years. I pray for peace and reconciliation among the people of this land who are so divided by hate and conflict.”

The journalist was amazed. “How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for these things when so much conflict remains?” she asked.

The old man looked at her sadly. “Like I’m talking to a wall.”

Every year, around this time, we hear Scripture passages and sing beloved Christmas carols about “peace on earth and good will to men.” We light candles and sing “Silent Night, all is calm and all is bright.” And it’s beautiful, perhaps even nostalgic for so many of us.

But does it really make any difference? You look at the world around us and you see all the unrest, violence, pain and brokenness. And you wonder…is peace really possible?

Or you look at our nation, still feeling the aftershocks of one of the most contentious election cycles in modern U.S. history. You’ve seen the deep divisions across the country, perhaps experienced them in your own communities, in your workplace and neighborhoods, maybe even in your own family. Is peace really possible?

Of course, we need not look around to see the signs of pain and brokenness. We look within ourselves, and we find the restlessness in our own hearts, the divisions within; we feel the ache, the longing for something more, for our lives to be well and whole. Is peace really possible?

We can pray for peace—within ourselves, our relationships, our nation and world. We can yearn for it. But after a while, you do wonder if you’re just talking to a wall. Is anyone listening? Or as one peace advocate put it, it can feel like your banging your head against a wall; and if you’re lucky, you might make a tiny crack. The walls that divide us are so strong…so strong.

The world is not the way it’s supposed to be. You didn’t need me to tell you that; you already know as much. Our lives are not the way they’re supposed to be. God has something else in mind.

It was on his mind in the beginning when he went about creating the world and everything in it. A vision for shalom, yes that’s the word. It’s Hebrew and it gets translated as “peace,” but it means so much more than what we tend to think. So much more…

What’s it mean? Wholeness. Flourishing. Interconnectedness of all things. The way things are intended to be. It means right relationship with God, right relationship with others, right relationship with all of creation.

But sin made a mess of things, disrupted this shalom, fractured the relationships. And up went the walls. Walls all around us; walls between us; walls within us. Our own hearts divided.

But God refuses to leave the world a mess, fractured and broken. God refuses to have a world with so many walls, so many divisions.

So what does God do? God enters into the mess, the darkness, the brokenness. God comes to be with us among all the walls. God calls a people to be his covenant people—a light to the nations. Sometimes they live into this calling; much of the time they don’t. But God’s intent is to pull the world back together, break down the walls, restore his shalom…bring his peace.

So Isaiah prophesies about it. He talks about a child who will be a light in the darkness. A Messiah, a Savior, who will come to draw the world back together, draw people back to God, usher in God’s shalom, God’s peace for all people, for all the nations.

He has a name…Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…Jesus, which means “God saves.”

And he has a face..the scrunched up, ruddy face of an infant—so helpless and vulnerable, born into straw and poverty to a teenage mom and her fiancé.

And he is bringing another kingdom—the one Isaiah speaks of—in the line of David, Israel’s greatest king—a kingdom of peace, where righteousness and justice meet in peace, shalom.

A peace that is not just the absence of conflict but the presence of something…justice, beauty, goodness, wholeness…God’s very spirit. A peace in which the walls come down, and we can finally be at peace with God—forgiven and put back in right relationship. And we can experience peace with one another—overcome our divisions and move toward one another in love and understanding. And nations can beat their weapons into plough shares and stop warring against each other.

This child brings this peace, makes this peace which seems impossible… possible! The Swiss theologian Karl Barth called this the “impossible possibility”—a God who is able to do what we, in our own striving and effort—cannot do. This child who would grow up into a man, fully God and fully human, and who would lay down his life in a sacrifice of love. Only to bust forth from the tomb three days later and be crowned Lord of all. The impossible possibility. And now the world can really be different.

The apostle Paul declares it this way in Ephesians: “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one, broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us….He has come to create one new humanity, thus making peace…

No wonder the angels sang out on that first Christmas day: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth—yes is really possible—on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

The movie Joyeux Noelle (2005) tells the true story of the famous “Christmas Eve Truce” of 1914. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sent thousands of Christmas trees to the front lines in order to boost the morale of the German troops. After the trees were set up over their trenches, in sight of the enemies’ lines, a German soldier began to sing the beloved Christmas hymn “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”).

His strong tenor voice pierces the cold, wintery night as enemy armies sit in their trenches gripping their rifles. Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Soon the French and Scottish troops, huddled in their separate barracks, begin to sing along in their own languages. Then something remarkable happens. Slowly, soldiers from all sides began to climb out of their trenches, without their weapons. They engage each other in conversation, exchange gifts, and then participate in Christmas Eve mass together!

In the movie, a fictional character is added—a world-class soprano to sing along with the great tenor. It is the beauty of their singing—and the beauty of the gospel that made up the content of their song—that breaks through the political dividing walls of hostility, and unites these sworn enemies in joy and tears.

And so tonight we sing…

“Hail the Heaven born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.”

And also this…

“Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother. And in his name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise his holy name.”

In this child born in Bethlehem, a kingdom of peace has come. A kingdom of peace that is not yet here in completion. So the Holy Spirit has been poured out on us to join God in this work of peace he is doing in the world.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be sons and daughters of God. Let it begin with each of us. Let it begin within our own hearts. What is impossible for us is now made possible with God.

God, give us courage to bear witness to the impossible possibility of a different kind of world—to a way of peace that is not only how the world can be but how it shall be when Christ returns and the glory of the Lord floods the whole earth! Even so, come Lord Jesus! Amen.

Christmas Eve 2016
Brian Keepers
Isaiah 9:1-2, & Luke 2:1-20
 

A pastor was preaching on Christmas Eve, and his sermon went quite long. His thoughts were scattered, he rambled on, it was difficult to follow. When he was greeting after the service, one parishioner surprised him when she commented, “Pastor, your sermon tonight reminded me of God’s peace and love.”

The pastor was flattered. “Really? How so?” he asked.

“Well, it reminded me of God’s peace in the way it surpassed all understanding! And it reminded me of God’s love because it seemed to endure forever!”

I’d like to share with you some thoughts tonight, and while I’m all about God’s peace and love, I do hope I might avoid both of these pitfalls!

Let’s pray…

There’s a story about a an old Jewish man who would get up at the break of dawn and go to the Western Wall in Jerusalem (also called “the Wailing Wall”), and he would pray fervently from morning to evening. One day, a journalist from the London Times, who’d observed him do this day after day, asked him: “You come every day to the wall. How long have you done this and what are you praying for?”

The old man replied, “I have come here to pray every day for 25 years. I pray for peace and reconciliation among the people of this land who are so divided by hate and conflict.”

The journalist was amazed. “How does it make you feel to come here every day for 25 years and pray for these things when so much conflict remains?” she asked.

The old man looked at her sadly. “Like I’m talking to a wall.”

Every year, around this time, we hear Scripture passages and sing beloved Christmas carols about “peace on earth and good will to men.” We light candles and sing “Silent Night, all is calm and all is bright.” And it’s beautiful, perhaps even nostalgic for so many of us.

But does it really make any difference? You look at the world around us and you see all the unrest, violence, pain and brokenness. And you wonder…is peace really possible?

Or you look at our nation, still feeling the aftershocks of one of the most contentious election cycles in modern U.S. history. You’ve seen the deep divisions across the country, perhaps experienced them in your own communities, in your workplace and neighborhoods, maybe even in your own family. Is peace really possible?

Of course, we need not look around to see the signs of pain and brokenness. We look within ourselves, and we find the restlessness in our own hearts, the divisions within; we feel the ache, the longing for something more, for our lives to be well and whole. Is peace really possible?

We can pray for peace—within ourselves, our relationships, our nation and world. We can yearn for it. But after a while, you do wonder if you’re just talking to a wall. Is anyone listening? Or as one peace advocate put it, it can feel like your banging your head against a wall; and if you’re lucky, you might make a tiny crack. The walls that divide us are so strong…so strong.

The world is not the way it’s supposed to be. You didn’t need me to tell you that; you already know as much. Our lives are not the way they’re supposed to be. God has something else in mind.

It was on his mind in the beginning when he went about creating the world and everything in it. A vision for shalom, yes that’s the word. It’s Hebrew and it gets translated as “peace,” but it means so much more than what we tend to think. So much more…

What’s it mean? Wholeness. Flourishing. Interconnectedness of all things. The way things are intended to be. It means right relationship with God, right relationship with others, right relationship with all of creation.

But sin made a mess of things, disrupted this shalom, fractured the relationships. And up went the walls. Walls all around us; walls between us; walls within us. Our own hearts divided.

But God refuses to leave the world a mess, fractured and broken. God refuses to have a world with so many walls, so many divisions.

So what does God do? God enters into the mess, the darkness, the brokenness. God comes to be with us among all the walls. God calls a people to be his covenant people—a light to the nations. Sometimes they live into this calling; much of the time they don’t. But God’s intent is to pull the world back together, break down the walls, restore his shalom…bring his peace.

So Isaiah prophesies about it. He talks about a child who will be a light in the darkness. A Messiah, a Savior, who will come to draw the world back together, draw people back to God, usher in God’s shalom, God’s peace for all people, for all the nations.

He has a name…Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace…Jesus, which means “God saves.”

And he has a face..the scrunched up, ruddy face of an infant—so helpless and vulnerable, born into straw and poverty to a teenage mom and her fiancé.

And he is bringing another kingdom—the one Isaiah speaks of—in the line of David, Israel’s greatest king—a kingdom of peace, where righteousness and justice meet in peace, shalom.

A peace that is not just the absence of conflict but the presence of something…justice, beauty, goodness, wholeness…God’s very spirit. A peace in which the walls come down, and we can finally be at peace with God—forgiven and put back in right relationship. And we can experience peace with one another—overcome our divisions and move toward one another in love and understanding. And nations can beat their weapons into plough shares and stop warring against each other.

This child brings this peace, makes this peace which seems impossible… possible! The Swiss theologian Karl Barth called this the “impossible possibility”—a God who is able to do what we, in our own striving and effort—cannot do. This child who would grow up into a man, fully God and fully human, and who would lay down his life in a sacrifice of love. Only to bust forth from the tomb three days later and be crowned Lord of all. The impossible possibility. And now the world can really be different.

The apostle Paul declares it this way in Ephesians: “But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one, broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us….He has come to create one new humanity, thus making peace…

No wonder the angels sang out on that first Christmas day: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth—yes is really possible—on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

The movie Joyeux Noelle (2005) tells the true story of the famous “Christmas Eve Truce” of 1914. Kaiser Wilhelm II had sent thousands of Christmas trees to the front lines in order to boost the morale of the German troops. After the trees were set up over their trenches, in sight of the enemies’ lines, a German soldier began to sing the beloved Christmas hymn “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”).

His strong tenor voice pierces the cold, wintery night as enemy armies sit in their trenches gripping their rifles. Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright. Round yon virgin, mother and child. Holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace.

Soon the French and Scottish troops, huddled in their separate barracks, begin to sing along in their own languages. Then something remarkable happens. Slowly, soldiers from all sides began to climb out of their trenches, without their weapons. They engage each other in conversation, exchange gifts, and then participate in Christmas Eve mass together!

In the movie, a fictional character is added—a world-class soprano to sing along with the great tenor. It is the beauty of their singing—and the beauty of the gospel that made up the content of their song—that breaks through the political dividing walls of hostility, and unites these sworn enemies in joy and tears.

And so tonight we sing…

“Hail the Heaven born Prince of Peace! Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings.”

And also this…

“Truly he taught us to love one another. His law is love and his gospel is peace. Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother. And in his name all oppression shall cease. Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we, let all within us praise his holy name.”

In this child born in Bethlehem, a kingdom of peace has come. A kingdom of peace that is not yet here in completion. So the Holy Spirit has been poured out on us to join God in this work of peace he is doing in the world.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be sons and daughters of God. Let it begin with each of us. Let it begin within our own hearts. What is impossible for us is now made possible with God.

God, give us courage to bear witness to the impossible possibility of a different kind of world—to a way of peace that is not only how the world can be but how it shall be when Christ returns and the glory of the Lord floods the whole earth! Even so, come Lord Jesus! Amen.

January 1, 2017
Lindsay Small
Mark 4:1-9

The Sower

 Happy New Year!

 This is a nice way to spend the beginning of the year!

 Its unusual to have the first day of the year on a Sunday…and really…there are a lot of sermon opportunities…

 -I could do a sermon year in a review…and preach one sentence from every sermon this past year.

 -I could do a New Year’s Resolution sermon…and we could go around and share our fitness and diet goals for the year.

 But before too many of you look for the door…I should tell you that I decided against all of these options…

 But knowing I was preaching to you on the first day of the year…gave me a fresh look at an often familiar parable…

 Hear the word of the Lord from Mark 4, verses 3-9…

 3 "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times." Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

This passage is a familiar one…a greatest hit…a top 10…like and shared more than any other parable…

 In fact, three out of four gospels prefer this parable…

 And for every reading of the parable, there is a sermon to go with it.

 These sermons usually begin with a gardening disaster story… Perhaps how the preacher never can grow anything…

-Perhaps how she planted seedum on top of the plastic lining in a flower bed once.

 -Or how she scorches her herb garden every summer…

 These ‘hypothetical examples’ are how 8 out of every 10 Sower sermons starts.

 Usually after said ‘gardening disaster illustration’…the sermon gracefully segues into “WHERE of the seed…the what of the soil…and the who of the Sower.”

 And after 21 and a half minutes…with souls warmed and new gardening resolutions made…the sermon ends.

 Or so I’ve heard, and maybe you’ve heard.

 But not this sermon…there are no gardening illustrations…no graceful segues…no resolutions. And in particular, the where, the what, and who…

 Because this morning, at the dawn of the day that launches 2017…I don’t think any of that matters.

 I don’t think WHERE the seed falls is important.

I don’t think what the soil is like under the ground is all that important either…(which is pretty much how I approach gardening in real life as well.)

 It’s rare for me to speak with such authority over agrarian matters when the closest I get to horticulture is the kettle corn at the Farmer’s Market.

 But I ran my alternate interpretation of this text past two New Testament profs, and it passed the text.

 So here I go with this morning’s 10 dollar question:

 What if where the seed landed didn’t really matter, but what mattered was if we were sowing at all?

 The Sower in this parable is often given a bad rap for being lazy or careless, just throwing seeds without any care at all…but actually, where has little to do with it.

 I read in a book somewhere that in those days, sowing came before plowing.

 And when I read that…I had no idea what that meant.  But it sure sounded promising for the purpose of illustrating my point…so I read on…

 The seeds would be thrown all over the place, then the ground would be cut and turned up.

 So the farmer would have little or no idea what the soil was like underneath…and wouldn’t know until the ground was plowed.

 The farmer’s concern wasn’t where or what…it was IF…If there were no seeds on the ground…there would be no harvest.

 Yes, there would be many seeds that will be seemingly worthless…the roots wouldn’t go down deep, the sun would scorch them, the thorns

would choke…but amidst all this, there would be seed that will go into the soil, and will reap a bountiful harvest.

 After the seed was scattered…some grew…some did not. But the point was…the seed had reached the ground.

 This is what it means to sow.

 So…What could this possibly mean to a room full of people who are called to serve God?

 A lot.

 I believe that as disciples of Jesus Christ…our call is to sow…

 …no matter where the seeds that you sow land.

 Once you’ve made that connection…now comes the best and most frustrating part…waiting to see which seeds will take off and which ones will wither.

 Now as life will often tell you…plans often change.

 You may have charted a course for your life…maybe at the beginning of a new year…you marked our a clear plot of land: I will be a social worker, a teacher, a pastor…I’ll get married, have 2.3 children, live in this particular place…

 If you live in my house, there’s lots of talk about being a horse rider, a football player, a scientist, a vet, and a ballet dancer (that one is Kyle…)

 As parents, we spend a lot of time (and money) helping kids find their plot in life.

 Several years ago, when our daughter Madeline was four, we placed her on the same t-ball team as her brother because her little best friend Ruby was going to be on the same team as well. Right from the beginning, we could tell that the baseball diamond was not her plot of land…she would sit in the outfield and pick wildflowers…she would sit on the bases while

infield…and then came the day when she went up to bat with her purse and plastic cell phone.

 The coach said, “Madeline, can I hold your purse for you?” And she casually answered, “No thanks, I might get a call.”

 Faithfulness means sowing…

 But life has a way of telling us…rather than us telling life…

 …and we need to be careful not to mark our boundaries too firmly.

 Before coming to Fellowship, I had the great privilege of working at Western Seminary directing a grant in preaching. And one of the best parts was organizing a monthly gathering called “The Pulpit”…a place for women to consider preaching. Its a role I have continued since coming here to Fellowship…guaranteeing me a free lunch and great conversation every month.

 The Pulpit started because in my first few months at the seminary, I was surprised by the number of women in particular who diminished themselves as preachers. They would dismiss themselves…No, no, no…I’m not a preacher…

 Several months ago, I had participants take an unofficial survey. I wanted to gauge their relationship to preaching. I had them chart their feelings on preaching on a continuum…beginning with…I) I would rather eat dirt (kind of an ironic given this passage…all the way to…4) I welcome the opportunity (keep your dirt).

 I was happily surprised by the number of students who over their time in Seminary had moved from eating Dirt to some measure of curiosity about preaching.

 By venturing out of the plot they had imagining for themselves, they found possibilities beyond what they thought ministry could be.

When we define our own plot…and set our own boundaries…we are diminishing the ways God can surprise us.

 This passage says…”Just Sow!”

That class you’re thinking of leading…that Bible Study you’ve been wanting to join…the Kids Hope student you’ve been thinking about mentoring…even though you’ve told yourself that you’re not a leader, a scholar, or a tutor…THOSE COULD BE THE SEEDS OF A LIFETIME OF MINISTRY.

But you won’t know it until you’ve sowed…until those seeds have touched the ground.

 I love to stories of people who stumble into their joy.

 A Seminary professor recently told me that he had so much fear and dread wrapped up in taking language classes in seminary…and wouldn’t you know it…he teaches Hebrew now.

 Our job is to sow…and see what harvest God will bring about.

It’s important to remember that even once you’ve found your sweet soil… it’s literally not all sunshine and roses. There will be time when you feel like all that you are doing to is a waste.

Your Kids Hope student didn’t click with you……a small group that never went deeper than a superficial level, a sermon you toiled over that landed like a lead balloon (I’m speaking in past tense by the way).

Seeds that were choked, trampled on, and scorched.

But here is a crazy thought: “That’s okay.”

Such is the path of following Jesus.

A life in ministry is not one bountiful harvest after another, it is a long obedience in the same direction. Your plot may change…but the sowing continues. Your yield may look pretty small…but the sowing continues.

 Some sowing will yield very little…and others will yield a lot…but in all sowing…in all experiences, we learn, and we grow. And frankly sometimes we learn more from the bad crops than the good ones.

 Jesus does not paint a picture for us that says, “Sow, and everything will be perfect.”

 No, he says, “Sow, and keep sowing, no matter what.”

 As 2017 begins, we want to draw your attention to a season we’re in a Fellowship centered around ‘Growing.’ Really, you could say ‘Sowing…’

 This is a season to try something…read through the gospels…join a Wednesday Night Class…commit to a Spiritual Discipline like prayer or

 Yes, the ground is frozen outside but in here there is a harvest to be had… Just sow…

Now this is usually the point in the typical “Parable of the Sower” sermon when the preacher turns back to the garden disaster story that she opened with and redeem it for the big finale…(it seemed to work pretty well for me last time.)

 But today I’ll just say this… Here’s the best part:

The sowing is your job…the harvest is God’s job. And He’s already promised us a bountiful harvest.

Sow…

 Let’s pray...God of the harvest, wherever we have staked our plot, give us the imagination to sow beyond our own borders…and to keep sowing our whole life long.

January 1, 2017
Lindsay Small
Mark 4:1-9

The Sower

 Happy New Year!

 This is a nice way to spend the beginning of the year!

 Its unusual to have the first day of the year on a Sunday…and really…there are a lot of sermon opportunities…

 -I could do a sermon year in a review…and preach one sentence from every sermon this past year.

 -I could do a New Year’s Resolution sermon…and we could go around and share our fitness and diet goals for the year.

 But before too many of you look for the door…I should tell you that I decided against all of these options…

 But knowing I was preaching to you on the first day of the year…gave me a fresh look at an often familiar parable…

 Hear the word of the Lord from Mark 4, verses 3-9…

 3 "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times." Then Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

This passage is a familiar one…a greatest hit…a top 10…like and shared more than any other parable…

 In fact, three out of four gospels prefer this parable…

 And for every reading of the parable, there is a sermon to go with it.

 These sermons usually begin with a gardening disaster story… Perhaps how the preacher never can grow anything…

-Perhaps how she planted seedum on top of the plastic lining in a flower bed once.

 -Or how she scorches her herb garden every summer…

 These ‘hypothetical examples’ are how 8 out of every 10 Sower sermons starts.

 Usually after said ‘gardening disaster illustration’…the sermon gracefully segues into “WHERE of the seed…the what of the soil…and the who of the Sower.”

 And after 21 and a half minutes…with souls warmed and new gardening resolutions made…the sermon ends.

 Or so I’ve heard, and maybe you’ve heard.

 But not this sermon…there are no gardening illustrations…no graceful segues…no resolutions. And in particular, the where, the what, and who…

 Because this morning, at the dawn of the day that launches 2017…I don’t think any of that matters.

 I don’t think WHERE the seed falls is important.

I don’t think what the soil is like under the ground is all that important either…(which is pretty much how I approach gardening in real life as well.)

 It’s rare for me to speak with such authority over agrarian matters when the closest I get to horticulture is the kettle corn at the Farmer’s Market.

 But I ran my alternate interpretation of this text past two New Testament profs, and it passed the text.

 So here I go with this morning’s 10 dollar question:

 What if where the seed landed didn’t really matter, but what mattered was if we were sowing at all?

 The Sower in this parable is often given a bad rap for being lazy or careless, just throwing seeds without any care at all…but actually, where has little to do with it.

 I read in a book somewhere that in those days, sowing came before plowing.

 And when I read that…I had no idea what that meant.  But it sure sounded promising for the purpose of illustrating my point…so I read on…

 The seeds would be thrown all over the place, then the ground would be cut and turned up.

 So the farmer would have little or no idea what the soil was like underneath…and wouldn’t know until the ground was plowed.

 The farmer’s concern wasn’t where or what…it was IF…If there were no seeds on the ground…there would be no harvest.

 Yes, there would be many seeds that will be seemingly worthless…the roots wouldn’t go down deep, the sun would scorch them, the thorns

would choke…but amidst all this, there would be seed that will go into the soil, and will reap a bountiful harvest.

 After the seed was scattered…some grew…some did not. But the point was…the seed had reached the ground.

 This is what it means to sow.

 So…What could this possibly mean to a room full of people who are called to serve God?

 A lot.

 I believe that as disciples of Jesus Christ…our call is to sow…

 …no matter where the seeds that you sow land.

 Once you’ve made that connection…now comes the best and most frustrating part…waiting to see which seeds will take off and which ones will wither.

 Now as life will often tell you…plans often change.

 You may have charted a course for your life…maybe at the beginning of a new year…you marked our a clear plot of land: I will be a social worker, a teacher, a pastor…I’ll get married, have 2.3 children, live in this particular place…

 If you live in my house, there’s lots of talk about being a horse rider, a football player, a scientist, a vet, and a ballet dancer (that one is Kyle…)

 As parents, we spend a lot of time (and money) helping kids find their plot in life.

 Several years ago, when our daughter Madeline was four, we placed her on the same t-ball team as her brother because her little best friend Ruby was going to be on the same team as well. Right from the beginning, we could tell that the baseball diamond was not her plot of land…she would sit in the outfield and pick wildflowers…she would sit on the bases while

infield…and then came the day when she went up to bat with her purse and plastic cell phone.

 The coach said, “Madeline, can I hold your purse for you?” And she casually answered, “No thanks, I might get a call.”

 Faithfulness means sowing…

 But life has a way of telling us…rather than us telling life…

 …and we need to be careful not to mark our boundaries too firmly.

 Before coming to Fellowship, I had the great privilege of working at Western Seminary directing a grant in preaching. And one of the best parts was organizing a monthly gathering called “The Pulpit”…a place for women to consider preaching. Its a role I have continued since coming here to Fellowship…guaranteeing me a free lunch and great conversation every month.

 The Pulpit started because in my first few months at the seminary, I was surprised by the number of women in particular who diminished themselves as preachers. They would dismiss themselves…No, no, no…I’m not a preacher…

 Several months ago, I had participants take an unofficial survey. I wanted to gauge their relationship to preaching. I had them chart their feelings on preaching on a continuum…beginning with…I) I would rather eat dirt (kind of an ironic given this passage…all the way to…4) I welcome the opportunity (keep your dirt).

 I was happily surprised by the number of students who over their time in Seminary had moved from eating Dirt to some measure of curiosity about preaching.

 By venturing out of the plot they had imagining for themselves, they found possibilities beyond what they thought ministry could be.

When we define our own plot…and set our own boundaries…we are diminishing the ways God can surprise us.

 This passage says…”Just Sow!”

That class you’re thinking of leading…that Bible Study you’ve been wanting to join…the Kids Hope student you’ve been thinking about mentoring…even though you’ve told yourself that you’re not a leader, a scholar, or a tutor…THOSE COULD BE THE SEEDS OF A LIFETIME OF MINISTRY.

But you won’t know it until you’ve sowed…until those seeds have touched the ground.

 I love to stories of people who stumble into their joy.

 A Seminary professor recently told me that he had so much fear and dread wrapped up in taking language classes in seminary…and wouldn’t you know it…he teaches Hebrew now.

 Our job is to sow…and see what harvest God will bring about.

It’s important to remember that even once you’ve found your sweet soil… it’s literally not all sunshine and roses. There will be time when you feel like all that you are doing to is a waste.

Your Kids Hope student didn’t click with you……a small group that never went deeper than a superficial level, a sermon you toiled over that landed like a lead balloon (I’m speaking in past tense by the way).

Seeds that were choked, trampled on, and scorched.

But here is a crazy thought: “That’s okay.”

Such is the path of following Jesus.

A life in ministry is not one bountiful harvest after another, it is a long obedience in the same direction. Your plot may change…but the sowing continues. Your yield may look pretty small…but the sowing continues.

 Some sowing will yield very little…and others will yield a lot…but in all sowing…in all experiences, we learn, and we grow. And frankly sometimes we learn more from the bad crops than the good ones.

 Jesus does not paint a picture for us that says, “Sow, and everything will be perfect.”

 No, he says, “Sow, and keep sowing, no matter what.”

 As 2017 begins, we want to draw your attention to a season we’re in a Fellowship centered around ‘Growing.’ Really, you could say ‘Sowing…’

 This is a season to try something…read through the gospels…join a Wednesday Night Class…commit to a Spiritual Discipline like prayer or

 Yes, the ground is frozen outside but in here there is a harvest to be had… Just sow…

Now this is usually the point in the typical “Parable of the Sower” sermon when the preacher turns back to the garden disaster story that she opened with and redeem it for the big finale…(it seemed to work pretty well for me last time.)

 But today I’ll just say this… Here’s the best part:

The sowing is your job…the harvest is God’s job. And He’s already promised us a bountiful harvest.

Sow…

 Let’s pray...God of the harvest, wherever we have staked our plot, give us the imagination to sow beyond our own borders…and to keep sowing our whole life long.

December 25, 2016
Nate Schipper
Luke 2:8-20

December 25, 2016
Nate Schipper
Luke 2:8-20