Genesis 15:1-6 | Mission First: Called Series | Eighteenth  Sunday After Pentecost | September 18, 2016 | Dennis Sanders, preaching

Trust is something that seems fleeting in our age.  We used to call banks, trusts which probably meant that we put some faith in the institution to take care of our money.  But the recent banking scandal has caused folk to become suspicious of banks.  We used to have faith in government, but scandals like Vietnam and Watergate made us see government in a different light.  Trust is also down in our churches.  The Catholic sex abuse scandal has done great damage to the church.  I can remember a few years ago when we started to partner with Hope for the Journey.  Since it is a ministry of a Catholic congregation, people who wanted to volunteer with the shelter had to take a course on boundary training, a program to protect children.  This is a good thing, but because of the problem the Catholic church has had when it comes to sexual abuse by priests, it’s hard to take this program seriously.

The thing is, you need to trust for a society to run well.  You have trust that the government will protect you and do the things it said it would for you.  We need to trust each other in order to make friendships and communities.  Trust means that you believe the other person has the best of intentions for you.  

In churches, we place trust in the leaders and institution.  We are willing to believe things that defy rationality, that even seem a bit crazy, because we trust in  God or Allah or the Buddah.

But we know that trust can be broken.  I just talked about the sex abuse scandals in the Catholic church, but there are other ways that religious people can abuse the trust of people.  I remember hearing about Jim Jones and his church that moved to South America from San Francisco in the 1970s.  His church became a cult and he was able to persuade people to move with him to Guyana and then to kill themselves with poisoned Kool Aid.  We can remember David Koresh who was holed up on a ranch in Texas with his followers and we can remember the inferno that killed Koresh and the followers.  While we were enjoying the arrival of the Hale-Bopp comet, a group of people also were watching it with anticipation.  They end up dead in a compound in California believing the comet would usher in a new age.

Which brings us to Abraham.  At the age of 75, he hears a voice from God that tells him to leave the place where he grew up and move to a foreign land where he would be the father of a new nation.  Now, Abraham had to wonder about this since he was 75 and his wife was also up in years and infertile.  How in the world can he be the father of anything?  But Abraham trusted God and moved his household to a new land where he waited to see what God would do.  And waited. And he waited. And he waited.  Months passed. Years passed.  Over time, Abraham was wondering what was going on with God.  Since he was a man with an estate, he decided he needed an heir.  He chose a servant who would have his possessions after Abraham died.  

In today’s text we open with Abraham having a vision.  God tells Abraham that he would protect him and that he would get a great reward.   God probably talked about protection, because in those days having children meant security.  But Abraham knew he had no children and so he questioned God.  What reward could Abraham get since he had no children?  He tells God his plight: because he had no children, he had to choose one of his servants as his heirs.  

But God tells Abraham that this won’t happen; instead his child will be the one who inherits Abraham’s possessions. Abraham doesn’t appear to verbally respond, but you have to wonder if he was doubting God at this point and maybe questioning his own sanity.  

But God takes him outside to look at

“Create Joy” | Genesis 2:4b-7, 15-17; 3:1-8 | Mission First: Called Series | Seventeenth  Sunday After Pentecost | September 11, 2016 | Dennis Sanders, preaching

Before I get into today’s sermon, I wanted to share a little bit about what we are planning to do for the next few months. We are starting a new worship theme this Sunday that will go from now until next May.  We will be talking about mission and the future of our church by using the Mission First emphasis that is being used by the wider denomination of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  For our purposes, the year long theme is broken down into three parts: from now until Advent, we will focus on what it means to be a church that is called.  During the winter until Easter, we will talk about the church gathering and during Eastertide we will talk about the church being sent into the world.  So, let’s begin.

The Grand Canyon is not just a place in Arizona; it also is a 1991 movie.  The movie, starred Kevin Kline, Steve Martin and Danny Glover and while it didn’t make a whole lot of money when it came out in late 1991, it was a movie that seem to fit the time.  One of the issues the movie takes on is race, and it seemed to speak to the 1992 LA riots which would ocurr a few months later in the spring of 1992.  

If there is a theme in the movie, it has to be trying to bridge the gaps that are found in human relationships.  Divisions of race and class were exposed and there were attempts to try to heal those divisions.  The Los Angeles of 1991 was a somewhat grim place, a place full of crime and isolation, but the connections that are made help make the world around these people a better place.  Not a perfect place, mind you, but a place where connection and reconciliation could happen.

That reminder that the LA of 25 years ago was not a sunny place.  Crime was rampant and the movie picks this up.  The movie opens with Kevin Kline’s character, Mac watching an LA Lakers game during the Magic Johnson era.  When the game ends, Mac leaves the arena and take a wrong turn that puts him in the wrong side of town.  Of course this is where the car decides to break down.  Mac gets out and calls for a tow truck and waits.  Well, being a white guy in a well to do car in a sketchy neighbood, basically means you are probably going to meet some people who are not so nice.  Pretty soon, Mac is surrounded by a group of young men who are looking ready to jump him.  

In the nick of time, the tow truck arrives.  An African American man gets out to do his job.  Simon, who is played by Danny Glover interrupts what might have been a robbery or worse.  In the midst of this one of the muggers, Rocstar, who happens to be holding a gun enters into a conversation with Simon, all the while with the gun pointed at Simon.  Rocstar is willing to let him go and do his work if he can answer this question: was Simon pleading because he respected Rocstar or was it because of the gun?  This is how Simon answers:

Man, the world ain't supposed to work like this. I mean, maybe you don't know that yet. I'm supposed to be able to do my job without having to ask you if I can. That dude is supposed to be able to wait with his car without you ripping him off. Everything is supposed to be different than it is.

The world aint suppose to work like this.  

Chapter 2 of Genesis presents us with a second story of creation.  Where Genesis 1 seems to look at things from 10,000 feet, this second story zeroes in and focuses on the relationship between the human and God.  This creation was formed from the earth, hence why some called this person, adam which is a play on the Hebrew word, adamah or the earth.  This human is given a task to do, a job  to take care of God’s creation.  Some has said that work was a result of sin, but here we see God ordained

Luke 14:1,7-14 | Fifthteenth  Sunday After Pentecost | August 28, 2016 | Dennis Sanders, preaching

It seems like every church has one.  Over the years I’ve learned that if your church is located in a neighborhood, there is some neighbor in the area that doesn’t like having a church nearby.  I can remember when I was an intern at Lake Harriet Christian in Minneapolis and they had a neighbor who decided that 10am on Sunday morning was the perfect time to mow the law.  Of course, 10am was the same time the church had its worship service, so one could always hear the sound of the lawn mower buzzing just as people were in prayer or trying to listen to the sermon.

I’ve heard of churches that have the neighborhood coming down on them for loud worship.  Of course, there are those who get upset when a church wants to house a soup kitchen or homeless shelter in a neighborhood.  They fear lowered property values and crime.  Churches have never had it easy in trying to be in the neighborhood.  Their neighbors for some reason see the church, THE CHURCH, as a nuisance.

That leads to our own congregation.  As many of you know, we have our own person who seems to not want us around.  I’ve still not met this person, which I don’t know if that’s good or bad.  But this person is always trying to find someway to get us in trouble with the authorities who are also a bit tired of this person’s antics.  

What has surprised me is when someone explained why this person is such a thorn in our side that the person was supposed to have said that our building gets the wrong kind of people.

The wrong kind of people.  I don’t know who this is.  This person sees us as potential threats or something that is an embarrassment to the neighborhood and would not like to be associated with this church. Instead of being a good neighbor, this person has made life hard for us.  Instead of open arms, this person turns their backs.

I have to admit that whenever I’ve heard talk about hospitality as a biblical theme, I would at times roll my eyes.  Mostly because I thought of it as good manners.  But welcoming someone is about more than good manners and it is about more than being nice.  It is about welcoming and loving those that God loves and that is not so easy to do.

In our passage today, we see Jesus at a party.  He has been invited to the house of a Pharisee and he uses this experience for a teaching lesson.  The table that the guests would recline at was shaped like a three sided square and instead of chairs, there were pillows or couches.  Jesus noticed that the guests were choosing the best places to sit.  Not being one to keep things to himself, Jesus decides to tell a story.  He tells them that if someone is invited to a wedding, don’t immediately go to the best seat.  Instead choose the lowest seat.  Now the guests gathered at this party might have thought this was cunning.  Feign humility and you will be rewarded.  But Jesus wasn’t about cunning.  Jesus wasn’t saying to take the lowest seat so that you get the grandest one.  This wasn’t about quid pro quo, but about showing humility.  Jesus saw the guests at this party choose places because they saw themselves as important people.  Jesus tells them that in God’s kingdom, social status is no more.  

Jesus then hammers the point by telling yet another story.  He tells the Pharisees that when they hold a party, don’t invite the people you already know. It would only be another case of quid pro quo, where you get something for doing something for someone.  Jesus then gives the kicker.  True hospitality is welcoming those who can’t pay you back, which in this case tends to be the poor and lame.  We can imagine the Pharisees being shocked at this saying.  There was no benefit to inviting the poor.  Jesus is going beyond just feeding the poor and sitti

“Body By Fisher” | 2 Cortinthians 4:16-5:10 and Luke 13:10-17 | Fourteenth  Sunday After Pentecost | August 21, 2016 | Dennis Sanders, preaching

If you had any General Motors car in the 1960s or 70s, you would notice something on the door sill plate.  It was a logo with blue carriage and below were the words, “Body By Fisher.”  This was an indication that the body of your car, no matter if it was a Chevy or a Buick or an Oldsmobile, was made by Fisher Body, a division of General Motors.  I remember seeing that logo in all the cars I drove in as a child growing up in Flint.  Flint happened to be one of the major centers for Fisher Body with at least three plants in the area.  I can still remember seeing car carrier trucks rumbling down the major streets in town with just the body of a car.  I learned those were bodies produced at one of the plants and they were off to one of the manufacturing facilities in town, such as Buick of Chevy or maybe the Olds plant in Lansing.  The Body By Fisher logo (and there was an ad campaign as well) was considered a badge of distinction a symbol of quality.

Alas, you won’t find the Body by Fisher logo in cars today.  Fisher Body was dissolved in the 80s as a part of restructuring in GM and by the mid 90s, the logo was gone.  But it lives on in the memory of the thousands of workers at Fisher Body plants and nearby assembly plants where they recieved those bodies ready to be made into running vehicles.

That logo was a mark that told you this was a General Motors car.  You couldn’t see it in a Ford or Chrysler, just in GM cars.  From the boardrooms in Detroit, to the design center in the suburb of Warren, to the auto plants in Flint, the logo of the horseless carriage from Fisher Body was the company’s mark of excellence. It said that this car belonged to a great heritage and was made with pride.

In the gospel today, Jesus is in the synogoge teaching.  I can imagine Jesus is teaching in a room and he sees this woman hobbling into the room.  He might have stopped mid-sentence to see this woman enter.  He is taken by her and lays hands on her, telling this woman that she has been healed.  Immediately, this woman is able to stand up straight.  After only being able to see the ground for nearly two decades, she can now see from a vantage point that she had forgotten.  She was healed.

In the original Greek, verse 12 has Jesus not healing the woman, but releasing her.  Later in the passage, Jesus uses a word that is translated into chains.  He describes this woman as bound, confined, boxed in and she has been set free.  

This could be viewed as just another miracle story, but there is more going on here than just a healing.  First off is the sense of being set free, of having a heavy burden taken away.  Many of the people we meet, maybe even it’s even us, start the day with a burden or burdens on their back. Some are dealing with unemployment or divorce or mental illness.  Whatever it is, it is something that holds us back.  People all around us deal with burdens.  I was listening to the podcast called Code Switch which is produced by National Public Radio.  It deals with issues facing persons of color and a particular episode dealt with Philando Castile, the young man who was shot by St. Anthony police during a traffic stop in July.  Two journalists were able to learn something that was unnerving. From the day he got his license until the day of his death, a span of 14 years, Mr. Castile was stopped by the police 46 times.  The majority of these stops ended up with a fine and these fines would pile up.  The story makes very clear that Mr. Castile wasn’t stopped because he was a bad driver.  More likely than not, he was stopped because of his color.  He lived for over a decade with the burden of racism.  It bound him, limiting his freedom.  But there are other wa

2 Cortinthians 4:1-15 | Thirteenth  Sunday After Pentecost | August 14, 2016 | Dennis Sanders, preaching

Ephesians 6:10-20 | Twelfth  Sunday After Pentecost | August 7, 2016 | Dennis Sanders, preaching

Ephesians 3:14-21 | Eleventh  Sunday After Pentecost | July 31, 2016| Dennis Sanders, preaching

Ephesians 2:11-22 | Tenth  Sunday After Pentecost | July 24, 2016 | Dennis Sanders, preaching