Pastor Patty Ebner

August 25, 2019

Jeremiah 29:11-14

For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.            

Starting Points

Whether we are familiar with the Bible in general or Jeremiah in particular, the words “For surely I know the plans I have for you” are commonly recognized.  I don’t remember when I first heard them but I can’t remember a time when I have not called upon them.  Today’s scripture represents the relationship between God and each of us, God’s children.  They describe the promises offered by God and the actions we must take in order to claim those promises.

Now, dependent upon our relationship with and concept of God, the opening words impact each of us very differently.  If we hear them like those coming from someone whom we have disappointed, we are likely to see a huge finger wagging before our eyes.  But if we hear the words from someone whom we trust and someone we know loves us, we can be assured that there is a plan for our lives, that direction is available, that God has not abandoned us, even in times of trouble and in conditions of exile.

And for the people to whom Jeremiah was writing, knowing that God had not abandoned them was of utmost importance.  Why?  Because they were in exile, under the control of the Babylonians, in a strange land.  Not in their homeland.   They had been subjected to the news of false prophets concerning God’s plans for them and were disappointed with the outcome.   Jeremiah felt called to minister to them, to set the record straight, to help them better understand God’s will for their lives, to offer hope.

Today’s verses take the form of promises from God.  They are forward looking statements and framed by an heir of separation from God.  And, with the exception of the first promise, each promise is accompanied by a required action:

THEN (not if) WHEN YOU CALL UPON ME and COME and PRAY to me, I will hear you.

WHEN (again, not if) YOU search for me, YOU will find me.

IF YOU seek me with all your heart, I will let YOU find me.  I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you AND I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

Today, I want to explore three questions:

1-Is there a difference between calling upon God, coming to God and praying to God?  Can we do one without doing the other?  Are all three actions necessary to make a connection to God?  We often call upon God during an emergency.  We scream the words, “Oh God!!!”  Sometimes our encounter stops right there.  It stops because we don’t pursue the connection.  We are distracted by thoughts such as “why does God cause such things to happen?”  “Why didn’t God intervene and stop this?”  Eventually, we write God off because our expectations are not met, because we don’t get our way.  In effect, we have called on God but abandoned God at the same time.

But calling upon God in urgent or everyday situations doesn’t have to end there, even when we are afraid or apprehensive.  God is not afraid of our questions, bothered by our confusion or put off by our reactions to life’s happenings.  God is always waiting for us.  We come to God and experience God in a

Spiritual Progress

Rev. Patty Ebner

August 4, 2019

When I woke up yesterday morning, I began my day with a cup of tea, some reading and silent meditation.  I pulled this card from a box of inspirational words which reads:  “Right now, in this moment, your soul has again created opportunity for you to be, do, and have what it takes to know Who You Really Are.  Your soul has brought you to the words of wisdom and truth before.  What will you do now?  What will you choose to be?”

I then picked up “Jesus Calling” written by Sarah Young.  The reading spoke to the power of words, how they can either bless or wound another individual.  Its words emphasized “the ability to verbalize” as an “awesome privilege” and one which requires assistance in wielding this mighty power in a responsible way.”  God’s concluding promise in the devotion was “I will enable you to be quicker to listen and slower to speak so that you may have more Joy.”  I can’t imagine that more appropriate words could be placed on a document for a minister who spends a majority of her time in conversation with others or at the pulpit on alternate Sundays.

As I began to mentally prepare for today’s message, I was once again reminded just how much I respect, admire and appreciate each of you.  Quite often though, what I know about you and the high opinion I hold of you, works against my ability to bring a message which will inspire and challenge you, to bring a message which crosses the “t’s” and dots the “i’s” in your paths to a fuller understanding of God and God’s purpose in your life.  After all, you are a really great group of people, with strong and open minds, souls full of love and acceptance.  What are the words which will make a difference in your lives?

Fortunately, I learned in seminary that the purpose of the preacher’s message is to “share the good news.”  In reading the words of this morning’s scripture, one might wonder where the good news appears in words which ask us to give up all of our earthly desires, whether material or behavioral, to live a life hidden in Christ, and finally to peel off the labels which have defined us and helped others to better understand us.  To that end, I looked at the verses in four different versions of the scripture. In an excel spreadsheet, I compared the words from one version to another to see if anything in particular stood out to me.

I noticed that tenses are often different from one version to the other and that certain behaviors are named differently.  “Fornication” as “sexual immorality”, “passion” as “lust,” and “greed” as “covetousness” or idolatry.  While none of these are surprising or out of the ordinary, I really appreciated the expansion of “seeking” to “setting one’s heart on” the things above.

In verses 8 and 9, I noticed that “getting rid of” language was changed to “putting them all away,” and “stripping off” was expressed as “taking off” or “putting off.”  I appreciate these modifications as well.  Putting them all away could mean that if I want to find them again, I can choose to do so.  And putting off might indicate that a certain behavior is always available to me but does not have to be embodied every single time I have the urge.

In verse 10, I love the active, dynamic presence of God, through which we are being renewed.  “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator.”  While the words are slightly different in each version, what’s critical is the knowledge that our understanding of, our interactions with, and our relationship to God our Creator, is dynamic and always subject to change.

Finall

Rev. Patty Ebner

June 16, 2019

Can We Bear It?

I like to preach from John because it correlates well with Christians and Christianity in the 21st century–people are in different places with their faith.  Some hold to their Judaism and remain in the synagogue.  Others combine Christianity with Judaism and name themselves as Jewish-Christian; some of them are allowed to worship in the temple while others are either cast out or choose to leave.

In the 21st century, we have Christians of many types—fundamental, evangelical, traditional and progressive.  We also have Christians who identify as Jewish-Christian, as Buddhist-Christian, and as Trinitarian Christians.  We have Christians who celebrate their Christianity at Christmas and Easter.

I like to preach from John because of the hope it offers to us.  John was writing to a community in a certain amount of turmoil.  There was tension between Jewish Christians and the synagogue authorities.   The book was intended as a source of inspiration for believers in the community and not to be used in changing the beliefs of others.

Today’s scripture not only introduces us to the members of the Trinity, it conveys the need for it as we seek to live into God’s will for our lives.  It stresses the role of the Holy Spirit as Jesus begins to prepare his disciples for his physical departure from their lives.

Verse 12 opens with a zinger of sorts when Jesus says to the disciples, “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.”

When I read this verse, I was immediately reminded of the 1992 movie A Few Good Men.  After a long period of questioning in which Lieutenant Kaffe is pressuring his witness to admit to wrongdoing which has resulted in the death of a Marine, Colonel Jessup answers Lieutenant Kaffee’s at the top of his lungs.  “You Can’t Handle the Truth.  I have a greater responsibility than you can imagine.  You have the luxury of not knowing what I know.  Yes, I ordered the Code Red.”

Now, I’m certain that Jesus would not have been shouting at the disciples in the same manner that Jack Nicholson (Colonel) was addressing Tom Cruise (Lawyer).  But the meaning behind Colonel Jessup’s words do contain some truth.  In that time and place, Jesus held a greater responsibility than the disciples could imagine.  Unlike them, he knew his time with them was limited, that soon, they would be on their own.  For three years, he had been able to walk and talk with them, to lead them in ministry and service to others.  Not unlike a manager, director, or Vice President leaving on a business trip, or a Lead Pastor going on sabbatical, how would the disciples carry on in his absence?  Would they remember the lessons?  Would they have the courage to carry on in the likeness of Jesus?  What would become of Jesus’ Great Commission?

Since Jesus seemed to know that the disciples could not bear everything that they needed to know in order to carry out God’s mission, he had little choice but to continue preparing them for the future—a future without himself.  To accomplish this, Jesus attempts to explain what we have come to understand as the Trinity—God (Jesus’ Father), Jesus (God’s Son), Holy Spirit.  “The Trinity holds to the idea of one God in three Divine Persons—the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  The three Persons are distinct, yet are one “substance, essence or nature”.

While I am not one who struggles with the Trinitarian concept, I am one who struggles with a “reasonable explanation” of it.    How do we give words to that which is unseen?    I often ask myself, Why aren’t the teachings of Jesus enough?  As I read today’s scripture, and how carefully Jesus prepared the disciples for their recognition of the Spirit, I realized I have been asking the incorrect question.  Instead of asking “why aren’t the teachings of Jesus enough,”