New Hope UMC of the Northern Berkshires

Look where you’re going!

Watch out!

Keep your head up!

Stop looking at your phone and look around you!

We spend so much time these days telling each other to look where we’re going. We look at the ground, we stay in the lines, stay in the crosswalk, walk carefully, and pay attention!

Of course, the reason we do that is that it’s what likes outside the lines that can affect us. Sometimes it’s minor, sometimes it’s not.

But think of how much passes us by unnoticed when we forget to look into the places outside of where we normally go!

What do the things that lie in the gaps tell us about our scriptures, our humanity, and our God?

The Apostle Paul instructs the churches in Ephesus on the proper wearing of the “full armor of God.” I don’t know about you, but these days when I think of “armor” I think of Iron Man, and that might not be the most helpful mental image when we think about God’s armor.

This Sunday, we’ll talk about what it means to “suit up” in God’s armor.

The author of the Epistle to the churches in Ephesus warns the readers that they should focus on “making the most out of the time.” Which is great, because I’m so good at multitasking! I can be writing a letter, watching a movie, having a phone conversation and catching Pokemon in Pokemon Go, all at the same time! That’s GOT to be making the most out of the time!

Except… I’m pretty sure that’s not what the author meant. Because there’s something I left out of my to-do list there…

The author of Ephesians wrote a powerful letter to the church in Ephesus detailing what it means to build community, and to live in community. He told them there are no shortcuts, and gave them solid guidance on how to live in relationship to each other.

And it’s all good!

But there’s this one line that the put in there. “Be angry,” he wrote, “but do not sin.” Which sounds like solid advice. Until we remember that Jesus said, “22 But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment…”

So… which is it? ‘Cause I get angry, and I’d like to know if that’s ok!

It’s hard for us, when we expect someone to be at a certain place, at a certain time, when the time comes, and that person isn’t in that place. It can be frustrating, infuriatingly so, and we don’t always react well to the disappointment.

Sometimes it’s like that with God.

When we’re going through something, and we want God to make it go away, but God doesn’t follow through the way we want. But God’s promise isn’t that we won’t have things go wrong, and have to deal with it, but that we don’t have to deal with it alone.

Even when we feel like God is distant, God is always with us, and God is always where we need God to be.

Last week we talked about the “ordinary miracles” of day-to-day ministry, and how we lose sign of them when we focus only on the big miracles. This week we’re going to turn back to the big miracles, remembering that, in the Gospel of John, they’re called “signs,” and, like all signs, they point to something.

This week’s Gospel reading comes from Mark’s Gospel, chapter 6. The first verse is verse 30, and the last is 56. And there’s a lot that happens between verses 30 and 56. In fact, two of the most famous of all of Jesus’ miraculous moments happen here: Jesus feeds the 5000, and Jesus walks on water and calms a storm.

But we’re not going to talk about those.

Because there’s this thing called the Revised Standard Lectionary that we use to guide our weekend readings, and it leaves both of those miracles, two of the most famous miracles in the ministry of Christ… it leaves them out.

And, I think, for a good reason.

This Sunday we're going to talk about King David's famous "Dance of Joy," where he danced in the streets of Jerusalem with abandon, and, it seems, without shame.

Sometimes we all need to dance. We need to dance like nobody's watching, even though we know people are watching.

Sometimes they're watching closely.

But we have a lot to celebrate, and a lot more to look forward to. So let's dance!

The Apostle Paul has been called many things: wise, the founder of the “modern” church, the Apostle to the Gentiles. And arrogant. Yeah, let’s name it: Paul has been called pretty arrogant.

But what sounds like boasting, in his own words, isn’t boasting, but a statement of fact. And it’s not boasting because he doesn’t take credit for it: he gives the credit to Christ, who is the true author of our faith.

All things Paul says about himself seem like boasting, but it’s not boasting if you can back it up, and Paul backs up his faith by recognizing that, apart from Christ, he has nothing to boast about.

The constant refrain through Christian worship is the gift of Grace, God’s unmerited love, given to us through God’s loving action in Christ Jesus.

However, no matter how many times we hear that it is God’s pleasure to give us a Grace we don’t deserve, and can’t earn, sometimes we still fill like that Grace isn’t for us. That, because we don’t deserve it, in accepting it we’re pulling the wool over God’s eyes.

Like we’re stealing something.

Beloved, be assured, you can’t fool God, and God’s gonna keep giving us grace, not in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve it, but specifically because we don’t deserve it.

It’s God’s gift to us, and it’s not stealing if it’s being given away.