Sharing God's Love and Grace

 

Meditation on Isaiah 6:1-8

May 27, 2018

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

 

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.  Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.”   4 The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me!  I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

     6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!”

 

***

 

Ruby was about 4 when her family moved from Tylertown, Mississippi, to New Orleans. Her dad, Abon Bridges, had lost his job picking crops when new farm machines made his job obsolete. In New Orleans, Abon found work at a gas station. They move into a small apartment where Ruby shares a room with her sister and 2 younger brothers. Ruby’s mother, after taking care of the house and the children all day, tucks her 4 little ones into bed at night, says their prayers with them, and then goes to her job scrubbing floors in a bank.

Every Sunday, the family goes to church. “We wanted our children to be near God’s Spirit,” said Lucille Bridges, Ruby’s mother, in the award winning children’s book, “The Story of Ruby Bridges,” by Robert Coles.  “We wanted them to start feeling close to Him from the very start.”

In 1957, black children weren’t permitted to attend school with white children in New Orleans, despite the Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education three years earlier that effectively outlawed segregation, declaring “separate was not equal.” The New Orleans school board resisted integration and attempted to keep black children out of all-white schools by requiring an entrance exam for black children that was so hard, most children—white or black—couldn’t pass. But early in 1960, Ruby Bridges was one of six black children in New Orleans to pass the test. Her father was against her attending the all-white William Frantz Elementary school, at first, even though the school was closer to home than the all-black school she had attended for kindergarten the year before. But her mother persuaded him not to let this opportunity for Ruby—and for all African American children—pass by. She saw God’s hand in this. The other 3 children transferred 2 miles away from William Frantz– to McDonough No. 19 and became known as the McDonough Three. The remaining two of the six New Orleans children who passed the test stayed at their old school, fearing the violence of Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957, when 9 African Americans attempted to attend the all-white Central High School.

Ruby’s first day was Nov. 14, 1960, the day Judge J. Skelly Wright ordered New Orleans’ schools to integrate. Four federal marshals escorted Ruby and her mother to her new school.

 

They were met by a mob of angry white people, yelling, threatening violence, throwing tomatoes and carrying signs with messages such as, “Integration is a mortal sin” and “God demands segregation.”

Norman Rockwell would later commemorate that day in his 1963 painting, The Problem We All Live With.

As Ruby entered, parents of the 500 students at William Frantz removed their children from their classrooms.

The little girl spent the first day of school sitting in the office. All the teachers had left. But on her second day, Barbara Henry, a new teacher from Boston, arrived. She taught Ruby for more than a year in an empty classroom, as if she were teaching an entire class.

 Also on that second day, a 34-year-old Methodist minister, Lloyd Anderson Foreman, broke the white boycott. He walked his 5-year-old daughter, Pam, through the angry mob, saying, “I simply want the privilege of taking my child to school …” By the end of the first week, another white child, 6-year-old Yolanda Gabrielle, returned to the school that separated all 3 children in different classrooms, though these were the only children in the school for the rest of the year.

The angry mob continued to gather to taunt Ruby every day.

Every morning, a woman would threaten to poison her, while another held up a little black baby doll in a coffin. Marshals escorted Ruby for the rest of the year, overseeing her safety, and allowing her to eat only the food she brought from home.

Former U.S. Deputy Marshal Charles Burks recalled, “She showed a lot of courage. She never cried. She didn’t whimper. She just marched along like a little soldier, and we’re all very, very proud of her.”

Ruby’s family suffered for their decision. Her father lost his job. The grocery store the family shopped at would no longer let them shop there. And her grandparents, sharecroppers in Mississippi, were turned off their land.

But at the same time, they saw God’s grace. Many in the community, both black and white, showed support. A neighbor provided her father with a new job; local people babysat, watched and protected their home, and walked behind the federal marshals on the trips to school. Their church and the NAACP offered some financial and moral support.

Lucille Bridges says in The Story of Ruby Bridges, “Our Ruby taught us all a lot. She became someone who helped change our country. … She led us away from hate, and she led us nearer to knowing each other, the white folks and the black folks.”

In the face of mob violence, Ruby responded with love. Every day, she stopped a few blocks away from school to say a prayer for the people who hated her.

“Please, God, try to forgive these people,” she prayed. “Because even if they say those bad things, they don’t know what they’re doing. So you could forgive them, just like you did those folks a long time ago when they said terrible things about you.”

 

***

Isaiah, like Ruby, had a prophetic calling, but doesn’t learn of it till he is an adult and sees a vision of the Lord on His throne, asking, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

But Isaiah is all too aware of his sinfulness in God’s presence. None of us feel worthy of serving the Lord of Hosts, not if we are honest with ourselves. Isaiah sees the seraphim—burning snakes with 6 wings each—attending to the Lord, he hears them singing God’s praises, and he imagines he will die.

 “Woe is me! I am lost!” he cries out, for he has “unclean lips” – a metaphor for sin —like “uncircumcised lips” in Exodus 6:12, 30. He confesses his own sin and declares the sin of his community, a people of “unclean lips” who have turned away from God and His Word.

“Woe to you who call evil good and good evil,” says Isaiah in chapter 5, “you who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! All you who are wise in your own eyes, shrewd in your own sight,… who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights!”

But God doesn’t give up on anyone. He is always beckoning sinners to return to Him and His ways of love and righteousness, peace and justice.

God removes Isaiah’s sin from him with a burning coal. None of us can take our own sin away or equip ourselves for God’s calling.

We all need redemption through God’s Son and strength and guidance from the Spirit. Isaiah’s mission will mean suffering and hardship. God’s people don’t want to hear the truth just like our society today doesn’t want to admit to sins of racism, hatred, and prejudice, which are always hiding in the shadows, ready to rise up, without warning, and hurt and destroy.

God sends Isaiah out to go and tell people whose eyes are blind, hearts are hard, ears are deaf, and minds won’t comprehend to turn back to God and be healed.

Isaiah trusts the Lord.

“Here am I!” He says. “Send me!”

 

***

 

In one year of Ruby’s life, we see the important roles others played so she would fulfill her calling. Her parents, her teacher.

The marshals. The child psychologist. The Methodist pastor who brought his daughter on the second day. Many other people—white and black—helped Ruby and her family, too, after the Supreme Court opened the way for change and Judge Wright did his part.

On Wednesday we honored our 13 VPK grads with a simple worship service. Many people—volunteers and staff– work behind the scenes to make this a powerful outreach to the preschool families every year.

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God is glorified as each 4 or 5 year old child is lifted up and encouraged for who they are—children of God, as we are, given the spirit of adoption, joint heirs with Jesus Christ… We all have a calling, unique to the gifts and plans God has for us. And our callings are connected. We share the same Spirit; we serve the same Lord.

Ruby accepted her calling when was just 6, without knowing what racism was or the suffering or trials ahead.

She thought she was just going to school that first day—thought all the shouting in the streets was Mardi Gras. Her faith still compels 64-year-old Ruby Bridges Hall to confront the problems of poverty, racism, and unequal educational opportunities through her foundation.

In 2001, she was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal. And in 2006, a California elementary school was named for her.

Like hundreds of thousands of others in the greater New Orleans area, she and her family lost their home in the catastrophic flooding of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. But the same storm brought new life to William Frantz Elementary School, which was on the school district’s list of closures before the storm. The school, under 5 feet of water after Katrina, was put on the National Register of Historic Places, renovated and now houses a public K-6^th grade charter school, Akili Academy.  The school that is 89% black embraces 5 values: “Teamwork, Grit, Excellence, Enthusiasm and Kindness.”

Ruby’s story is told every year as part of the curriculum. A statue of her stands in the courtyard.

 And Room 2306 is the “Ruby Bridges Room” to honor the little girl who spent a year alone in a classroom, shunned because of her skin color. A brave girl who answered God’s call. “Here am I.”

 

Let us pray.

Lord, we hear you calling to us now—to come and follow you. Here we are. Send us! Stir us to acts of bravery as we confront the problems of racism, prejudice, poverty, and other injustices in our society, rather than sweep them under the rug as past history. We ask for your healing to come to this land. Let us never be afraid to ask the hard questions and move forward, step by step, trusting your Spirit to guide and empower us to do your will. Thank you for the many gifts and blessings you have given us. May we use them for your glory and not be frustrated or discouraged by the darkness around us and if we don’t see immediate results and positive change. For Isaiah was called to preach to those without ears to hear, eyes to see and minds to comprehend. Keep us working to reveal and build up your Kingdom, which has no end. And teach us to pray every day—as Ruby did—for her enemies, that you would forgive them and lead us to love and forgive them, too. Through Christ we pray. Amen.

 

 

Meditation on Acts 2:1-21

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

May 20, 2018

 

2 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability. ⁵ Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶ And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷ Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans?  ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language?

⁹ Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹² All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say.¹⁵ Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

¹⁷ ‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
¹⁸ Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy.
¹⁹ And I will show portents in the heaven above
and signs on the earth below,
blood, and fire, and smoky mist.
²⁰ The sun shall be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood,
before the coming of the Lord’s great and glorious day.
²¹ Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

 

Beginning at 11:20 a.m. England time yesterday, Rolls Royces carrying the British royal family and the wedding party pulled up at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor as the crowds cheered them on. Some people had camped out for days to claim their spots and get a good look at Prince Harry and his beautiful bride, Meghan Markle on their wedding day.

The wedding brought back memories of Charles and Diana’s wedding in 1981. Did any of you see their wedding? More than 750 million people watched that royal wedding, taking in every detail, which at the time, were very important to some of us.

How beautiful Diana was, wearing a dress worth more than $41,000 U.S. dollars today. I even remember some of the funny things that happened. Poor Diana was so nervous—with 3500 invited guests watching and listening in person; she got Charles’ name wrong during the vows, calling him “Philip Charles Arthur George” instead of “Charles Philip Arthur George.”

Her 25-foot train got wrinkled on the way to the wedding, and her young bridesmaids couldn’t shake the wrinkles out before she walked down the aisle. India Hicks, who was just 13 at the time, recalls Diana sympathetically whispering, “Just do your best” to her bridal party.

And Clementine Hambro, granddaughter of Winston Churchill was just 5 when she was in Diana’s wedding party. Clementine tripped and fell and began to cry, to which Diana asked her gently, “Did you bump your bottom?”

There were some similarities to Harry’s parents’ wedding, including the Cinderella procession afterward with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex riding in a horse-drawn open carriage, flanked by royal regiments on horseback. But there were important differences– signs of hope and much needed change, not just for attitudes in Britain society, but for America and the whole world.

This was Charles and Diana’s son, Harry, marrying a beautiful, outspoken American actress named Meghan Markle, who is bi-racial.

About her ancestry, Meghan has said, “My dad is Caucasian and my mom is African American. I’m half black and half white. … I have come to embrace this and say who I am, to share where I’m from, to voice my pride in being a strong, confident, mixed-race woman.”

Meghan arrived at the church in a 1950 Rolls Royce custom made for Elizabeth’s coronation. She was 4 seconds late, the press pointed out. The bells were chiming the noon hour as she was helped from the car.

Two little boys held the tips of her enormous train as she walked up first 22 steps to the entrance and then down the aisle. Her little bridesmaids followed behind and passed by the bride, nearly forgetting to take the bridal bouquet.

Harry smiles at Meghan and goes off script, not caring that the whole world is watching. ”You look amazing,” he says to her. “I love you.”

The bride’s mother, Doris Ragland, came alone as she was the only one in her family to attend. Meghan’s father had heart surgery on Wednesday and wasn’t ready for travel. Doris wept openly throughout the service.

The archbishop of Canterbury read from 1 John: “God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.” The congregation sings “Lord of All Hopefulness” to the tune of “Be Thou My Vision.” A passionate passage from Song of Solomon was read. The Kingdom Choir sang a very moving, “Stand By Me,” following the Rev. Michael Curry’s charismatic, social justice message.

Curry, the first African-American leader of the US Episcopal Church, quoted Martin Luther King, “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will be able to make of this old world a new world.”

Curry said, “There’s power in love. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t even over-sentimentalise. There is power, power in love….. I’m talking about some power. Real power. Power to change the world.”

***

 

It’s the power of love—REAL power—that comes to Christ’s followers gathered in Jerusalem on Pentecost. This familiar story we read every year, and recall its fine details, such as Peter’s joke about not being drunk at 9 in the morning. This Spiritual baptism is not limited by gender, age or social position. Slave or free, men and boys, women and girls, “all flesh” receive the Spirit in a demonstration of radical social equality that is the Kingdom of God. But with hearing the story every year, I worry that the “violent wind” may be diminished to something less than the wild, out of our control force that breathed life into human beings formed from dust at Creation. It is also important to remember that the Spirit comes to those with faith, those who have prepared their hearts, gathering together in one place, waiting in hope and prayer, as Christ tells them to do.

The first to benefit from the Spirit’s work on Pentecost through Christ’s followers are the devout Jews and proselytes who have come from all over to Jerusalem for the pilgrimage festival of Shavuot. The word Pentecost is Greek for 50^th as Shavuot falls on the 50^th day from the first Sunday after Passover. It’s no coincidence that God has chosen this day to give His Spirit to dwell with His people. For on Shavuot, the faithful celebrate the giving of God’s Word—the Torah—on Mt. Sinai. The Spirit compels Christ’s followers to speak of God’s “deeds of power” in languages that everyone can understand, languages the uneducated Galileans couldn’t possibly know on their own. Many take Peter’s message to heart; about 3,000 people are added to the church in one day.

The Spirit continues to give gifts to Christ’s followers today–each in a special way, as Paul explains in 1 Cor. 12:7-11. We need to trust the Breath of God that is in us and take the message to our community, as Peter and the disciples do on Pentecost. But most of us don’t feel comfortable preaching to crowds. Most of us aren’t comfortable preaching at all. The thought of sharing the gospel with the world is surely terrifying to some. But I think the most effective preaching involves few if any words, like St. Francis of Assisi said. Your life proclaims God’s work in you through the fruits of the Spirit, Paul tells the Galatians in 5:22-23. People will know you are following Christ by your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, and self-control.

Remember you have the Breath of God living inside you. We have the Breath of God among us when we gather together in faith, waiting, praying and hoping in him. And you have the Power of Love. Real Power…  …Power to change the world.”

Let us pray.

Lord God, thank you for sending your Spirit at Pentecost so that believers would be strengthened to share your message of love and redemption–and that the church would grow by 3,000 that day. Thank you that we have your breath now, within us, and that you continue to breathe on us your Spirit, refreshing and renewing us as we seek to do your will. Grow us, Lord, by your Spirit. Build our faith and numbers in all our ministries, including the preschool. Stir us to gather together every Sunday to seek you in faith, hope and prayer here, in this place. Then send us out to care for people in need and show we are your followers by our acts of kindness. Transform us with your Power of Love and use us to break down barriers between people– and change the world. In Christ we pray. Amen.

 

 

 

 

Meditation on 1 John 4:7-21

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

May 6, 2018

⁷ Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. ⁸ Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. ⁹ God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.

     ¹³ By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴ And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. ¹⁵ God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God.  ¹⁶ So we have known and believe the love that God has for us.

       God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. ¹⁷ Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. ¹⁸ There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love.  ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us. ²⁰ Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. ²¹ The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.

 

***

We shared a bedroom, growing up. My sister and I were giggly girls, not wanting to go to sleep while it was still light out when our parents put us to bed. We threw pillows at each other and argued over whether the door and windows should be left open or closed. Open, I said, as we had no a/c and Maryland summers are hot and humid. She said closed, worried about burglars and fire. We compromised–the door left open a crack ; my window opened; hers closed.

Susan is 2 and a half years older than me and 14 months older than our brother. She was a premature baby weighing only 2.5 pounds at her birth in October 1962. She spent her first 2 months in an incubator, fighting for her life, losing 50 percent of her body weight before slowly regaining and growing. Finally, at Christmas, the doctors let Mom and Dad take their baby home. She continued to be fragile through our growing up years, weighing only 98 pounds when she graduated from high school. But she was smart and a conscientious, straight A student. She played violin, studied Latin, Spanish and French and made plans to go to college.

But one evening, when I was about 15, I came home and discovered the house strangely empty— partially cooked dinner still on the stove, turned off. I don’t know how I learned what happened—whether my parents left a note, called or just, eventually, came home from the hospital. My sister had tried to commit suicide and was fighting for her life-again. I was stunned. She never told me she was depressed. I felt angry, hurt, sad. Our lives changed drastically after that. Our family would never be the same.

Susan did recover physically, but never came home. She was diagnosed with schizophrenia and placed in a state institution that has since closed because it was so terrible. It would be the first of more than 20 hospitalizations.

But she found hope and help through an organization called St. Luke’s House, which began in 1971 as a ministry of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Bethesda, MD. The church wanted to address the needs of patients being released from state psychiatric hospitals with no place to go. Susan lived in their group housing (they have more than 30 units with 111 beds). She received counseling and help finding a job, assistance with medical care, food, clothing, household items and transportation until she could afford to buy her own car. One of the greatest blessings about St. Luke’s is that it provides opportunities for recreation and socialization, knowing that friendship–love– is a basic human need and that people with mental illness often have a difficult time cultivating loving, lasting relationships with others.

***

Our passage in 1 John begins with, “Beloved.” This is an affectionate greeting, as some translations say “dear friends.” But there’s a deeper meaning, and John using this word twice in this passage and 6 times in this letter is making a point. This is the same John who uses the phrase “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” in his gospel, which many interpret as John writing himself and every believer into the story. We are all disciples whom Jesus loves. We are all God’s beloved.

John is telling us who God is in this letter and by omission who God is not. He isn’t like the psalmists who go on and on about God’s rescue and provision or God leading them to victory over their enemies. The psalmist would probably be disappointed with John’s definition–just as we want more from God in this world–healing for our loved ones, freedom from pain and suffering, and an easier life. John says, “God is LOVE.” And if you don’t love, then you don’t know God! And you know what love is? This is love– not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we might have life through him. He took the punishment we deserved, revealing that love means self sacrifice, allowing oneself to be vulnerable, and being willing to suffer if it would save those you love.

And what happens when God’s love is poured into us? It is perfected–made complete–in us. God’s love empowers us to love others–if we choose to do what “we ought to do,” as John says.

I have always thought the reason we might choose not to love is because the person is hard to love or has hurt us and we cannot forgive them. But I never really thought about another reason that people might choose not to love–fear–until this week. John contrasts fear and love in this passage, saying they cannot co-exist. With this, John may be telling us to overcome our fear of being vulnerable and open our hearts to fully love and be loved.

“Love has no room for fear,” John says in some translations. “Perfect love drives out fear.” Fear can block the Spirit’s transforming work in our hearts. For the one who fears, John says, is not made perfect in love.

***

Susan called me a few weeks ago to tell me surprising news. My 55 year old sister was getting married for the first time. She had met John 10 years ago through St. Lukes. He was bi-polar and had just been diagnosed with kidney cancer. She was on her way to visit him. Would I pray for his healing? I said I would.

Then, a couple nights ago, she called again–crying. John had died suddenly, without her saying goodbye. We talked for a long time. At the end of our conversation, I encouraged her to write down her memories of John. She sent me her tribute the next morning, and asked if I might share it with you. She hopes that her story might help someone who might be afraid to love–or afraid to share their feelings.

“Don’t wait to tell your loved ones,” she says, “how you feel.”

John was interested in history, politics, economics, science. He read the Washington Post from cover to cover. He read biographies– JFK, MLK. “He could explain things to me I didn’t understand,“ she said. They talked on the phone often.

When they went out together, she would pick him up at a bus stop, and they would go to local historic sites and parks. A favorite place was Brookside Gardens in Wheaton. He had positive outlook, she said, and was tender with her when she had depressive episodes. He would say, “I feel great! It’s a wonderful day!” They ate at McDonalds, and he picked up her tray and emptied it for her. He was kind, gentle, considerate. Before she dropped him off at the metro station at the end of each date, he would say, Thank you, I had a good time with you today. And she would say, “I had a good time, too.”

She didn’t tell him how she felt about him because she was afraid it would push him away. But when he got sick a few months ago, she started spending Saturdays with him at the nursing home. Finally, she got up the courage to tell him that she cared about him and wanted to marry him. He paused for a second and said, “I accept. I will have to get you a ring.  We need to go to Paris.” He told her he was 66. She said, “Age doesn’t matter.”

For those few months, she was happy to have a boyfriend and to be engaged. “I am so glad I didn’t hold back my feelings,” she said. Her only regret is that she hadn’t shared her feelings years ago. How different her life would have been!

After talking to her on the phone and reading her letter, I could only marvel at the change in her. She had peace, despite her sadness and loss– a peace brought about by her love for another–and the love of God being perfected in her heart.

 

Let us pray.

Holy One, we thank you for your love and for all the loved ones you have placed in our lives. Thank you that as we learn to love and open ourselves to love, your love is perfected in our hearts. Forgive us for our reluctance to be vulnerable and for not always feeling like loving. Help us to forgive those who have hurt us and bear witness to the loving Spirit that abides in us, transforming our hearts. We pray for my sister, Susan, and her healing and wholeness as she grieves the loss of her loved one. May we all feel your loving presence with us always and never be afraid to show our love for one another. In Jesus we pray. Amen.

 

Meditation on John 10:11-18

April 29, 2018

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

 

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.  ¹² The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³ The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep.  ¹⁴ I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵ just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷ For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸ No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

***

 

I came to a decision last week about our preschool chapel service. It’s time to split the group! The group has gotten so big that I am not able to give each child as much individual attention as I would like.

We have thirty-six 3, 4 and 5 year olds all wanting to answer my questions about Jonah, Joseph or Jesus at the same time. All wanting to be helpers, such as carrying the basket of musical instruments and collecting the children’s maracas, tambourines, sticks and cymbals. They want to show me their shark tooth necklaces and tell me about going on a cruise, losing a tooth or having a birthday. I want to congratulate them when they show me their age on their fingers… And tell them how sorry I am to hear how their father “accidentally” stepped on their baby pet spider.

 

God has blessed us with 36 precious children popping up out of their seats when they want to touch an object or see a picture up close–or just get a hug. They love Jim, too. At one of the first chapels he brought his guitar about a year ago, little Jacob cried out, “Oooo! Pastor Jim! You’re a rockstar!” They have had a special relationship ever since.

What led me to decide to split the group now and not wait till fall was when we were singing our greeting song at the beginning of chapel a week or two ago. I call the children by name and help them choose an item of clothing they want us to sing about, such as “Jeffery is wearing a red shirt, red shirt, red shirt, Jeffery is wearing a red shirt all day long.” Then they choose the next person we sing about and so on. But after 20 minutes, we still weren’t done! And we had the Bible lesson and other songs still to do.

The children aren’t shy about singing or sharing their feelings and the intimate details of their lives. They know we are listening, that we care, and that what they say is important to us. They know the sound of my voice–when I speak, read, laugh, shush, and sing. They listen to me and follow as I teach new rhymes, fingerplays and songs. They echo simple prayers, without hesitation.

They want to be loved–for everything they are and are gonna be.

They know I am watching them–and they are watching me.

Who are you watching over, in your life? Who is watching over you? For we are all called to be sheep. And we are also called to be shepherds, following in the footsteps of our loving Savior, who watches over us all.

***

 

Studying our gospel reading this week, I couldn’t help but think how much we who have been in the faith for many years have lots to learn from 3, 4 and 5 year olds. I can hear Jesus saying, as he does in Matthew 18:3, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

It’s easy to picture young children as the sheep that listen to Christ’s voice, lambs that Christ knows intimately–watches over and beckons to him by name before he leads them in right paths. Sheep do not have to pushed out of a sheepfold; they are not like cattle who are herded from behind. They are timid and follow their shepherd as he goes ahead of them; there is never a place we can go where Jesus has not yet been! They know his voice; they know him; that’s why they follow him. They won’t follow a stranger. They know he cares for them. He nourishes, disciplines, and protects them, helps them when they are sick or wounded. He stays with them and never abandons them–not like the “hired hand” that won’t risk his life for the flock . The point is not that the hired hand is bad but that belonging to Christ is everything. And He’s the one who chooses us and claims us as His own. His commitment to us is unconditional–based on what he has done for us. But his expectation is that we watch for him, listen to his voice–and only his voice– and obey.

Jesus’ audience is both disciples and Pharisees in John 10. In chapter 9, Jesus heals a man who was blind since birth. The man responds to Christ, with, “Lord, I believe.” The Pharisees are not convinced.

So Jesus, in John 10, explains his mission to the Pharisees with the metaphor of a shepherd. He stirs their anger by declaring himself to be God, using OT language and imagery. The Psalmist in 100:3 says, “Know that the LORD is God.  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” “He tends his flock like a shepherd:” says Isaiah 40:11, “He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

The Good Shepherd, who will lay down his life for the sheep, is proclaiming the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:16-17, “The LORD their God will rescue his people, just as a shepherd rescues his sheep. They will sparkle in his land like jewels in a crown.  How wonderful and beautiful they will be!”

The Pharisees are divided in their reaction to Christ’s teachings. Some say, “He has a demon and is out of his mind. Why listen to him?” Others say, “These are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”

Jesus will answer those who call him demon possessed or insane. “You do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep,” he says, adding for emphasis, “My sheep listen to my voice. I know them, and they follow me.”

 

***

A few weeks ago, we invited preschool and VPK families to attend a special chapel. We began like we usually do– singing “Good morning, good morning and how do you do?” and the song about the clothes we are wearing all day. I reviewed the Miracles of Jesus we had been learning — turning water into wine, calming a storm, walking on water, and feeding the multitude with a few loaves and fish. We prayed our simple echo prayer, and then, a bunch of volunteers and staff from the church and preschool led the children to do crafts and games on the theme of the Miracles of Jesus before eating lunch with their families.

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While they were eating, a grandma visiting from California, thanked me for the chapel and taking time to get to know the children, especially her granddaughter. Would I invite her parents to church? She hoped so–and that other preschool families would come to our church, too.

Starting this week, Jim and I will be leading 2 chapels, back to back, beginning at 9:30. Our lesson this Tuesday? We will tell them about the Good Shepherd –how Jesus will go after the one sheep that is lost, though he may still have 99 in the fold. That’s how much our Savior loves us!

He has claimed us as His own. He calls us by name. “My sheep listen to my voice,” he says. “I know them, and they follow me.”

As Christ loves, we must love. To me, this means learning all of the children’s names and the important stuff that really matters: shark tooth necklaces, birthdays, loose teeth, and baby pet spiders that “accidentally” get stepped on.

The children want to be loved– for everything they are and are gonna be.

Who are you watching over? Who is watching over you?

For we are called to be sheep. And we are called to be shepherds, following in the footsteps of our loving Savior, who watches over us all.

 

Let us pray….

 

Dear Lord, thank you for being the Good Shepherd, who has laid down your life for us, your sheep, so we may have life and have it abundantly. Thank you for calling us by name and knowing us better than we know ourselves. Thank you for caring about what we care about–every little thing that children and adults worry about. Help us to be more like children, Lord, so that we may be obedient to you and trust your commands. Thank you that you speak so we can hear your voice and for leading us to follow you in the paths you want us to go. Thank you that you are always with us, watching over us still, using us to be shepherds like you–and nurture your sheep. And finally, thank you, for the children and families you have blessed us with at the preschool. Help us to share the love of our Good Shepherd with them and bring them into your Kingdom fold. In Christ we pray. Amen.

 

 

Meditation on John 21: 1-19

April 15, 2018

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

   21 After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. ² Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. ³ Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him,  “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

⁴ Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. ⁵ Jesus said to them,  “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.” ⁶ He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish.  ⁷ That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!” When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. ⁸ But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off.

⁹ When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. ¹⁰ Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.” ¹¹ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. ¹² Jesus said to them, “Come and have breakfast.” Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord. ¹³ Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. ¹⁴ This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

¹⁵ When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him,  “Feed my lambs.” ¹⁶ A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” ¹⁷ He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. ¹⁸ Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go.” ¹⁹ (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, “Follow me.”

***

Florence thought of herself as different as she grew up. She wants things that other girls don’t want. She is born in 1820 in Florence, Italy, to an extremely wealthy, cosmopolitan English couple on an extended European honeymoon.

The Nightingales owned 2 large estates, Lea Hurst in Central England and Embley Park in South Central England. They move in social circles that include politicians, writers and poets, such as Tennyson. Flo’s father is a liberal humanitarian who fought for the reform of Parliament. Her maternal grandfather was an abolitionist. She is well-educated; her father teaches her to read French, German, Italian, Latin, and Greek; she excels in math. But it is the Victorian Age. She is expected to marry well and have children. She turns suitors away.

Flo further shocks her family when at 16 she announces that God is calling her to be a nurse. Paid nursing is a job for poor, uneducated and often elderly women, with a reputation for drunkenness, bad language, and loose morals.

Florence is headstrong. She persuades her parents to allow her to take a 3-month course in Lutheran Deaconess training in Germany. Within a year, she becomes the superintendent of the “Institution for Sick Gentlewomen (governesses) in Distressed Circumstances” in London.

In 1853, the Crimean War breaks out. British forces are seriously depleted after the October 1854 Battle of Balaclava and the ill-fated “Charge of the Light Brigade.”

 

Word of the horrible conditions for wounded British soldiers reaches the Minister of War, who is an acquaintance of Flo. He invites her to take 38 female nurses to work in a military hospital in Turkey on trial. She says yes. Her family doesn’t approve; it means being in close contact with men of all sorts, without a chaperone.

Florence and the 38 nurses arrive in November 1854 at Scutari Barracks in Constantinople, where wounded soldiers are shipped across the Black Sea. The conditions are horrifying; 2,000 men lying on mattresses 18 inches apart in 2 rows, with barely enough space to walk between. Food is scarce; there’s not enough running water, no way to keep patients clean, even if the importance of sanitation and the dangers of bacteria were known—and they weren’t. Vermin and disease are rampant—typhus, typhoid, cholera, dysentery.

No one has told the doctors that the nurses are coming; they are shown to their quarters in a tower infested with rats and a dead Russian soldier on the floor. But soon thousands more wounded arrive; the nurses’ help is needed. Flo attempts to organize the hospital and the distribution of supplies, arguing with doctors and writing letters to government officials, trying to improve overall conditions.

But how she becomes a heroine to the British people is that she is devoted to the common soldier. She endears herself to them, walking the halls at night with her lantern, sitting up talking with them. The soldiers write about Florence in their letters home. She writes hundreds of letters to their families, expressing condolences when soldiers die, assuring them that their sons had “the best care” and passed “peacefully.” The soldiers affectionately call her “the Lady with the Lamp.”

When the war ends in 1856, Flo goes home to her family, who, though disapproving of her work, embrace her celebrity status. But Flo is filled with anger about all the death she has witnessed. She is even more upset when she learns that more soldiers died at her hospital than any other. They died not from their wounds, but infectious diseases caused by unsanitary conditions. All pride in her war service evaporates. She is unable to forgive herself for not seeing the link between the conditions at the hospital and the alarming death rate.

 

***

In our gospel reading today, Peter is having trouble forgiving himself, too. He can’t move forward with what the Lord has called him to do. The passage starts with Peter declaring that he is going fishing—by himself. He doesn’t invite anyone; perhaps he’s running away from the leadership gifts that his community recognizes. The others immediately say, “We’ll go, too.” You can almost imagine him shrugging his shoulders,  “Whatever.”

The passage comes after the risen Christ has appeared a number of times to the disciples. Christ gives them his peace and His Spirit and sends them out to do a work of forgiveness. Then comes chapter 21 and the story of Peter’s commissioning to care for Christ’s “sheep”– the ragtag bunch of disciples that will grow into a great flock in Acts, when Peter preaches on Pentecost. In John 21, Jesus waits for the disciples to be exhausted from their fruitless fishing all night, so that he may bless them with another “sign.” Casting on the “right” yields more fish than they can haul in, bringing to mind 3 years earlier, in Luke 5, when the fishermen reluctantly cast empty nets at Christ’s insistence, and then leave their nets and miraculous catch to become fishers of people with Him.

I love the details in this passage, including the one about Simon Peter needing to put on his clothes. Does it remind you of Adam and Eve after they eat the forbidden fruit? They are “naked and ashamed” and attempt to cover themselves. I think Peter, too, feels vulnerable in Christ’s presence.

Now Jesus invites the disciples to bring their catch to a shared meal. He serves them, and we remember the Last Supper. Eating together affirms that the risen Jesus is no ghost; he is flesh and blood, but also divine, as revealed by the miraculous catch. Jesus calls Peter by his formal name, asking him if he loves him—“more than these.” The “more than these” could mean,  “do you love me more than you love the disciples?” or  “do you love me more than the other disciples love me?” Jesus asks 3 times, leaving no doubt in Peter’s and our minds that Christ remembers how Peter denied him 3 times before the cock crowed, just as Peter hasn’t forgotten or forgiven himself. Peter responds emotionally the third time, “You know I love you!”

Yes, Christ knows—and wants to use Peter, not despite his weakness, but with his weakness; for Christ’s power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor. 12:9). Jesus wants to make sure Peter will be a humble, servant leader of the Church, reliant on the Spirit and motivated only by LOVE– for Christ and His Church.

And it is this way with us, friends. God wants to use us, not in spite of our weaknesses, but working through them to accomplish his purposes. His Spirit equips us with everything we need, including faith and the ability to forgive ourselves and one another. He wants our only motivation to serve Him and the Church to be LOVE.

The Good Shepherd is calling us now,  “Follow me.”

***

I don’t know if Florence ever forgave herself for what she saw as her great failure during the War. But God used her in a powerful way, with her weaknesses. From age 38 on, she was often confined to her bed with brucellosis, an infection caught during the war. In 1856, Queen Victoria rewarded her with $250,000 and an engraved brooch–the “Nightingale Jewel” for her war service.

 She used the money to establish St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses.

She wrote thousands of letters advocating for public sanitation and healthcare reform for the British army and civilian hospitals. She was consulted about field hospitals during the U.S. Civil War and on public sanitation issues in India.

Among her honors, she receives the Order of Merit from King Edward in 1907 and a celebratory message from King George on her 90th birthday in May 1910.  She dies three months later.

       I have to think that her strength during the war and afterward, during her prolonged illness, came from the same One whose voice she heard at 16, calling her to be a nurse. Flo was laid to rest at her family plot, refusing burial at Westminster Abbey. Her marker bears a plain cross with only her initials and dates.

She may never have realized the importance of her wartime service –when she showed comfort and compassion to thousands of wounded soldiers. When she wasn’t the rich heiress Florence Nightingale, but was only “the Lady with the Lamp.”

Let us pray.

Holy One, we thank you for your love and forgiveness for us, when we feel we have failed you and ourselves. Help to us to fully accept ourselves in our weakness and to rejoice in your grace and mercy. Thank you for your plan to use our weakness for your work and your glory. Lead us to acts of bravery and humility, shining your light and never seeking worldly rewards, such as appreciation from other people. May we always seek to obey and please you. Let our motivation for our actions every day be LOVE. In Christ we pray. Amen.

 

Meditation on John 20:19-31

April 8, 2018

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

 

 

¹⁹ When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

       ²⁴ But Thomas (who was called the Twin⁾, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him,  “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

²⁶ A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸ Thomas answered him,  “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

³⁰ Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹ But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

 

***

Journalist Ken Fine wanders Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC, feeling sad about his girlfriend of 5 years breaking up with him.

Then, the sound of a Mozart concerto prompted him to raise his eyes, he writes in a January 2017 article for Indyweek. “There he was. A heavy-set man with shoulder-length hair, the brown curls showing signs of gray….The violin under his chin and the bow in his hand were worn. I’d seen him before, playing that same instrument: on Franklin Street in Chapel Hill as a young boy, my hand in my mother’s as we walked to Pepper’s Pizza for a pregame slice; on Durham’s Ninth Street as a teenager, cutting it up with friends…. He was a constant to thousands of kids like me, who’d grown up in the Triangle.

“In the twenty minutes I sat there listening to him—this man I didn’t know, but who wasn’t quite a stranger—on that stormy February afternoon in 2008, I was reminded of happier times. Reminded that life, even in its worst moments, was full of possibility. Full of hope.

“When the wind picked up and the sky darkened, I turned to leave. The music stopped. Suddenly I was overcome by emotion, tears welling up in my eyes. The fiddler placed a soft hand on my shoulder.

“You gonna be OK?” he asked.

“I think so,”  I replied.

“Well, I know so,”  he said, a half-smile forming on the right side of his mouth. “How about one more song for the road?”

Most people didn’t know the violinist’s name or story or how mental illness led to him choosing a life on the streets. How when he played his violin was the only time he felt peace. He never asked for money…. Never had “ill words for passersby,” Ken says. Business owners appreciated his presence outside their storefronts. The town affectionately called David McKnight the Franklin Street Fiddler, the Mayor of Ninth Street, or Hillsborough Street’s Handel.

“He was our musician,”  Ken says.

David was born in 1947, the son of civil rights leader and Charlotte Observer editor “Pete” McKnight. He didn’t pick up the violin until 6^th grade but quickly displayed his talent. Smart, charismatic, popular, funny, athletic. In high school, he was voted slide “most likely to succeed.”

During his senior year, he began showing symptoms of mental illness; the diagnosis is unknown. He attended Duke University and played the university mascot, the Blue Devil, on the field. He left school early to travel the world; he would earn a degree later in life. He spoke twelve languages. When he returned home several years later, he became a reporter for The Durham Morning Herald, The News & Observer, and The Charlotte Observer. When he became an editorial writer for The Fayetteville Observer in the mid-seventies, he formed a folk band and, for about 5 years, they played at festivals and small venues across the state.

In 1978, he left his job to run for Senate against incumbent Jesse Helms. Though he was just 29 and too young to serve as a Senator, 9,000 people voted for him. His campaign was radical–no fancy clothes or prepared talking points. And no car! He wore out 6 pairs of shoes walking 1,654 miles across his state with his fiddle, promising voters he wouldn’t “fiddle around” in Washington.

 

He never again held a steady job after losing the election. He refused help from family and friends; refused to take medication, believing it would affect his playing.

Those who walked by as he played his violin, wouldn’t likely see that his life, without his knowing it, was a gentle witness to those with so-called “normal” lives –those who were, unlike him, too busy to reach out with kindness and compassion to someone in need.

 

 

***

In our gospel today, we pick up where we left off on Easter–after the risen Christ appears to Mary Magdalene in the morning, and Mary runs to tell the disciples, “I have seen the Lord!” That night, Jesus appears to the disciples–minus Thomas– huddled in fear behind locked doors. My first response is, “Guys, didn’t you hear what Mary said?!”

But that’s the whole point of this passage–that only those who see Jesus and hear him speak to them personally believe in His resurrection. The male disciples need even more proof of his identity than Mary; they need to see the marks on his hands and side. This is John emphasizing that the risen Christ is both human–bearing the scars of his crucifixion in his flesh–and divine; locked doors fail to keep Jesus out when he wants to enter a room! Thomas, a week later, will proclaim his faith with, “My Lord and My God!”

The risen Christ brings his fearful, unbelieving disciples what they need to do His work in the world. First, he greets them with His peace, which he has offered before.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you,” he tells them in John 14:27. “I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” Then he gives them a gift they must “receive” by faith. He breathes His Spirit on them, bringing to mind God breathing life into humanity, formed from the dust of the earth at Creation. But also, it reminds us of Pentecost in Acts, when the promised Spirit comes as a rushing wind, with tongues of fire to fill a larger group of disciples gathered in Jerusalem 50 days after the Passover. The Spirit in John 20 will form a new community of believers and empower them to take the message of God’s forgiveness to the world, so that all who believe on Him will have “life in his name.” “As the Father has sent me,” Christ tells his faithful, “so I send you.”

And Thomas? Why is he singled out when none of the disciples believe until they see for themselves? Thomas, up to now, has been loyal to Jesus. When Christ prepares to return to Bethany to his friend, Lazarus, who is dying in John 11, Thomas is the only one who doesn’t try to talk him out of it. “Let us also go,” he says, “that we may die with him.”

He speaks for all the disciples when he says in John 14 that they don’t understand what Jesus is talking about —going to “prepare a place for them.” He says, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

I think Thomas is every follower of Christ. We declare our love and commitment to the Lord one minute and struggle with fear and doubt the next. But Christ pursues us, like he does Thomas, who honestly declares his unbelief–not in Jesus, but that Jesus has risen from the dead. The truth is that the risen Christ is always with us, but, like the first disciples, we don’t always recognize him. We expect a glorious king, when Jesus tells us in Matthew 25 that he is the stranger we invite in, the poor, hungry and thirsty person we feed and clothe, and the one who is sick or in prison that we visit. That when we are serving people in need, we are serving him.

***

Eventually, the people of Charlotte figure out that David McKnight, the homeless violinist, has given the community a precious gift when he shares himself and his music with them for 30 years, expecting nothing in return. But it takes him getting sick. He was diagnosed with cancer in November 2016. Ken, after hearing about the inoperable brain tumor, decides to finally thank him for his kindness on that stormy night in Feb. 2008–when David played Dylan’s Blowin in the Wind and his gentle words lifted him. Ken was reminded of happier times. That life, even in its worst moments, is full of possibility. Full of hope.

He visited David on Jan. 12, 2017 in a healthcare facility. But he has waited too long. “I don’t know if he understood,” Ken says. David can only speak in “a mumble, a hodgepodge of sounds that only resemble actual words.” His appearance is so changed that Ken doesn’t recognize him at first. His fiddle is stashed behind the bathroom door.

On Jan. 15, 2017, two days before David dies, the community hosts a 3-hour musical tribute for him. More than 200 people come. David is too sick to attend. But it is live-streamed into his hospice room. At the event, someone announces that they are raising money to build a statue of him, violin in hand, to erect on Ninth Street.

They pass a bucket, Ken says, “church-style.” The bucket is full before it makes its way around the hall.

***

Friends, don’t doubt. Believe!

Today is a new day, a fresh beginning for us.

Act kindly. Love boldly. Help others. Share what you have with people in need. Forgive, as God forgives you.

Live faithfully so others may see that you trust in the Messiah, the Son of God, who offers to all who believe life in his name.

“As the Father has sent me,” Christ says to us, “so I send you.”

 

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we love you and trust in your Son, the Messiah, whom you sent to save us from our sins. Renew us with your Spirit. Pour your peace in our hearts so that we may be peacemakers. Lead us in your loving ways so that we may boldly reveal the new life in your name you offer to all who believe. Help us to acts of creativity, generosity and kindness, especially to people in need. Open our eyes to ways we can help others; give us courage to act. Stir us to forgive as you have so mercifully forgiven us. Use us to work for you and make our community a kinder, gentler, happier place. In Christ we pray. Amen.

Meditation on John 20: 1-18

April 1, 2018

Easter Sunday

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

 

     20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ² So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴ The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵ He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶ Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷ and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸ Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹ for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. ¹⁰ Then the disciples returned to their homes.

¹¹ But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look^[a]into the tomb; ¹² and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³ They said to her,  “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴ When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

 

***

 

The first time I met Fred Rogers, I was a little kid. I saw him on his Public Television Show, Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.  I liked his puppets and the toy trolley  that introduced the land of Make-Believe. I wasn’t sure why he was always putting on a sweater and sneakers in the house. I always took off my sweater or jacket when I came home. I never wore shoes in the house. And his urban neighborhood was very different from my country dwelling. For one thing, we didn’t have people from the community ringing the doorbell all the time, bringing packages and stopping by to say hello.

 

But it was always a beautiful day in his neighborhood. And he looked right at me and called me his friend. The youngest of 3, with 2 working parents, I was a latchkey kid and lonely sometimes.

The second time I met Fred Rogers, I lived in another town and had 3 young children of my own. My life was chaotic and exhausting. But I always looked forward to lunch with Mr. Rogers and my kids at the middle of the day. That was one of the few times my oldest would sit on my lap, quietly transfixed on Trolley, and the world of Make Believe, puppets, musical guests and factory tours.

 

 I will never forget his excitement seeing how crayons were made. Rogers reminded me that it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood–and how blessed I was. I appreciated that he talked with my children about expressing their feelings in positive ways, being kind and to never be afraid to learn new things and ask questions. I liked that he sang all the time, even though he didn’t have an amazing voice. I didn’t know that he wrote all the songs he sang. One of my favorites is, “It’s You I Like.”

“It’s you I like,
It’s not the things you wear,
It’s not the way you do your hair
But it’s you I like
The way you are right now,
The way down deep inside you
Not the things that hide you…

It’s you I like.”

 

***

We can only imagine the sorrow and terror the first disciples felt on the morning after the Sabbath that followed Christ’s death. Were all their hopes and dreams of the Kingdom Christ proclaimed destroyed at the foot of the cross?

In John, Mary–and not any of the original 12 male disciples–is the first to arrive at the tomb, coming while it is still dark–probably between 3 and 6 a.m. It would be unusual and dangerous for a woman to come alone to a tomb, when grave robbing is common. But perhaps the grief is so great, she isn’t thinking clearly. All she can think about is Jesus’ body is gone! She doesn’t even react to seeing the angels in his tomb. It’s as if she cannot take it all in, nearly running into Jesus when she turns to leave–then mistaking him for a gardener.

The repetition of, “Woman, why are you weeping” always touches my heart, revealing that Christ and the angels care about Mary’s grief, though his death and resurrection are part of a much larger plan for the world. Mary has been a faithful follower since Jesus cast 7 demons out of her.  Because she is named more than a dozen times in the gospels, you might argue that she plays a more important role than most of the male disciples. Of course, Jesus knows she is looking for him when he asks, kindly and gently, “Whom are you looking for?” I can almost see a twinkle in his eye. Can’t you?

She doesn’t recognize Jesus until he calls her by name. This makes me think of Isaiah 43:1,  “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.”

Jesus sends Mary off to be his messenger, telling the men at home, probably still sleeping, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.”

She tells them that and more.

She says,  “I have seen the Lord!”

It won’t be until much later– after more appearances of the Risen Christ and the coming of the Spirit–that the disciples come to understand what has happened and begin to think of what it all means.

On Easter, we celebrate our risen Lord and that we will be raised to new life with Him, a life of kindness and service that begins, with the Spirit’s help, in this world.

⁴ For Christ’s love compels us,” Paul says in 2 Cor. 5, “because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again ^{…. 17} Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! ¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

 

***

The third time I met Mr. Rogers was just a few years ago, and everything became clear. He wasn’t just a TV personality and his show, which celebrated 50 years in February, was no ordinary children’s program. He was a Presbyterian pastor, with a master’s from Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and a bachelor’s in music composition from Rollins College. Everything he was doing was a calling and a ministry, ordained by our denomination.

Without mentioning God, Jesus or Scripture, he revealed the Kingdom of God for children and families through his beautiful, loving neighborhood. His question, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” is an echo of the Good Samaritan parable, when a lawyer asks Jesus, “Who is my neighbor?” The neighborhood and Fred Roger’s gentle, joyful manner with children and adults were an invitation to embrace the love of God for all human beings, and to love, as He loves, even those who are different from us and may not love us.

Mr. Rogers had the courage to address topics other children’s programs would not dare talk about, such as divorce, death, and racism. In 1968, his was the first children’s show to feature an African American as a regular member of the cast. Francois Clemmons, a classically trained tenor whom Rogers met in church, was persuaded to play a police officer named Officer Clemmons.

Clemmons recalls that in 1969, when some white people in Pittsburgh didn’t want African Americans swimming in public pools, the show featured Rogers, pants’ legs rolled up, resting his feet in a plastic baby pool on a hot day. He invited Officer Clemmons to come, sit down, roll up his pants’ legs, and rest his feet in the water with him. The camera closed in on the two brown feet next to the two white feet as they talked and sang about friendship. Near the end of the scene, Fred helped dry Officer Clemmons’ feet with a towel. They revisited this scene in their last episode together in 1993.

Mr. Rogers never wanted the children to know he was sick–and frighten them. He died of cancer in 2003, just a few months after he stopped working. He had won 4 Emmy awards, a Peabody and a Presidential Medal of Freedom, among other honors, including having one of his iconic sweaters on display at the Smithsonian. But an acceptance speech for a 1997 Lifetime Achievement Award at the Daytime Emmys revealed his gratitude and humility, and took the audience by surprise.

Fred said, “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being. Would you just take, along with me, ten seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are. Ten seconds of silence.”

And then he lifted his wrist, looked at the audience, looked at his watch, and said, “I’ll watch the time.” There was stunned silence as people slowly realized that he wasn’t kidding. Then the seconds passed, and the tears started to flow as people did as he asked.

My friends, on this joyous Easter Sunday, in this beautiful church, when we are reminded of Christ’s resurrection and our promise of being raised with him, will you take a moment and consider who loved you into being– who helped you become who you are, encouraged you in your walk of faith? And told you what a special person you are. Because you are.

After 10 seconds, Mr. Rogers looked up from his watch and said softly, “May God be with you all.”

Let us pray.

Holy One, we thank you for the blessings of this day–of time with loved ones and remembering loved ones and beautiful Easters past. Thank you for all the saints who showed the way to follow Christ, saints such as Mary Magdalene, who isn’t even called a disciple, though we know she was. Thank you for their persistence and obedience to your Son’s command to share the Good News. Christ is risen from the dead! Thank you for sending your Son to be the sacrifice for our sins–for making a way when there was no way for us to be reconciled with you and one another. Help us to reveal through our kindness and service, using all the gifts and resources you have given us, to our hope in Christ and the promise of being raised with Him to new life. In His name we pray. Amen.

 

 

Meditation on Luke 19:28-44

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

Palm Sunday: March 25, 2018

 

         ²⁸ After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹ When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying,“Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this,‘The Lord needs it.’” ³² So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. ³³ As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ They said, “The Lord needs it.” ³⁵ Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. ³⁷ As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, ³⁸ saying,

 

“Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
     Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!”

³⁹ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” ⁴⁰ He answered,“I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”

     ⁴¹ As he came near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ Indeed, the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up ramparts around you and surround you, and hem you in on every side. ⁴⁴ They will crush you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave within you one stone upon another; because you did not recognize the time of your visitation from God.”

 

***

 

Our spring festival yesterday, our Eggstravaganza, was such a blessing.  That’s what I heard from families and from volunteers who shared stories with me at the end. We had all sorts of help from our congregation with this powerful outreach to the community. Thank you for your faithful response to our invitation to serve!

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We planned for a multitude, hoping 900 plastic, candy-filled eggs would be enough. Turned out, it was plenty! We had a nice crowd, but it wasn’t crowded.

Families said this was a good thing. One mom had come from an egg hunt at a large church in Titusville; the entire town was invited, she said. They left early and drove to Merritt Island.

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The children could take as long as they wanted for our activities. The leaders could spend more time helping each child and talking with family members.

As we prepared for this big event, we hoped and prayed for opportunities to build relationships, bless and serve our neighbors. We prayed that whoever would come, would have their hearts open to experience the peace and joy of the Lord.

I trusted that God would use us to bear witness to the compassion and gentleness of Christ our Savior, our humble, servant king.

 

***

 

Today on Palm Sunday, the first day of Holy Week, we remember Christ’s dramatic entrance into Jerusalem. After ministering throughout Galilee, he has nearly reached the city of his destiny, the goal of his wanderings. But first, a colt must be found and brought to Jesus. Those following Jesus will recognize the symbolism of Christ riding on the back of a colt, never been ridden, as fulfilling Zechariah’s prophecy.

At the Mount of Olives, Jesus sends two disciples to find and untie a colt in the “village ahead.” We encounter a number of points of uncertainty with this text. One is that Luke names two villages, but which one is the one “ahead?” The first one mentioned is “Bethphage,” meaning “house of unripe figs;” the actual site is uncertain, though there is a “Bethphage” religious site on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, with a Franciscan church on it. The other village, “Bethany,” which means “house of dates” or “house of misery,” (another point of uncertainty and debate) is where Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived –and where Lazarus was raised from the dead –and where a woman anoints Jesus with expensive perfume. Bethany is also where the risen Christ will ascend into heaven in Luke 24.

Then, Jesus sends the disciples to get a “colt.” But Luke uses the Greek word “polos,” which means “a young animal, foal,” but isn’t the usual word for donkey– “onos” — which Matthew uses. “Polos” could mean a young horse. But that wouldn’t fit with Zechariah’s prophecy in 9:9:

“Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!  See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”

Still, the important message is not the geography or vocabulary of this passage. It’s that the disciples trust him and things go exactly as Jesus tells them. This ride of the Messiah is part of God’s larger, mysterious plan. Who has Jesus become in the eyes of this crowd of disciples? Their spreading of their cloaks on the road is the welcome of a king. They celebrate Jesus by singing praises to God for all His “deeds of power, beginning with the first line of Psalm 118:26. But they substitute “the king” for “he.”“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. And,“Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” reminds us of the angels singing at Christ’s birth in Luke 2:14.

All peace and joy is interrupted when some Pharisees, who use the human title of “Teacher,” urge Jesus to rebuke his disciples. They may fear the Roman Empire’s response to this display of adoration. But Jesus rebukes the Pharisees, instead.

As he draws nearer to the Holy City, he weeps, knowing the terrible fate of Jerusalem.

If only they had recognized the things that would make for peace, he says. This is a play on the name Jerusalem, which contains the Hebrew root S-L-M, “shalom,” for a peace that is also “wholeness and completeness.” Christ’s identity is hidden from the Pharisees, but what about the crowd of followers, who give our humble, servant king a royal treatment on the road to Jerusalem, but then betray and desert him at the cross?

***

 

Yesterday, I had many sightings of our Lord. But I was looking for him, hoping in him, trusting and expecting to see him.

I saw Christ in the laughter and smiles of children, parents, and grandparents.

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In the encouraging words and warmth of volunteers.

I saw Christ in the provision of not just all that we needed, but more than what we needed.

In the intimate conversations that just happened, without my seeking them. One lady shared her joy that the adoption of her child is finally complete. She had tears in her eyes.

One grandmother who came with her grandchild told me she misses Kids Klub so much, she wants to come back. The grandmother vowed that she will work hard to make that happen.

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Her granddaughter came up to hug me at the end of the morning to say goodbye and thank you– for everything. Her eyes sparkled.

And I saw Christ, alive again, forevermore.

Our humble, servant king.

 

Let us pray. Holy One, thank you for your blessings to us, for your Spirit that is with us always, helping us to do your will. Thank you for Jesus, our humble, servant king who, though he died on the cross, lives again and forevermore. Thank you for the many volunteers who serve this congregation, who love you with all their hearts and give so much of themselves for your sake. Help us, Lord, to love one another, and to share Jesus with the world. Heal us of our hurts, forgive us for our sins, and change us into the image of your Son, more and more. In His name we pray. Amen.

 

Meditation on John 12:20-33

March 18, 2018

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

    ²⁰Now among those who went up to worship at the festival (of the Passover) were some Greeks.  ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³Jesus answered them,  “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and  those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.  ²⁷“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.  ²⁸Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven,  “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said,“An angel has spoken to him.”³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine.  ³¹Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.  ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 

***

Our cat, Melvyn, as many of you know his story, was a stray that showed up at my church in rural Minnesota one day.  When I petted him, the orange and white tabby followed me home. He was hungry and dirty. I fed him on the back steps. Then he cried at the back door all night, in the rain. In the morning, I opened the door and the wet cat came in. I fed him again and he decided to stay with us, even though my husband didn’t like cats, and worried that he might be plotting to kill us.

 

Five years and 1,200 miles later, Melvyn is still with us. He follows Jim and me all around the house. Wherever we go.  I think Melvyn is still grateful that we let him come and live with us, after living outside in Minnesota for who knows how long. I am pretty sure he never thinks about his old life anymore.  And he’s not the same scraggly, wild cat he used to be. Our love and care of him has transformed him.  

Our cat’s devotion to those who love, nourish and rescue him from harm makes me think of the devotion God deserves from us because of his love, forgiveness and astonishing gift of new, abundant and everlasting life.

***

Our gospel reading begins with the arrival of some “Greeks,” who don’t directly approach Jesus. They go to one of his disciples, Philip of Bethsaida in Galilee.  One reason why the Greeks don’t go to Jesus may be that they are Gentiles and may fear rejection. Gentiles and Jews in ancient times do not associate with each other. They are uncircumcised, unclean. They don’t follow the food laws. They don’t speak Hebrew or live according to the Torah. They eat meat sacrificed to idols. They may worship other gods. But they may be God-fearers, Gentiles who worship the God of Abraham,  if they are in Jerusalem at the time of the great pilgrimage festival of Passover.

Why choose Philip? Possibly because his name is Greek, named for the father of Alexander the Great.  And he speaks Greek, coming from a predominantly Greek-speaking area. But also because he is willing to speak to the strangers; he is an enthusiastic follower of Jesus who is not timid about reaching out to others.

He is a fisherman when Jesus calls him in John 1:43–the third disciple to respond to Christ’s invitation, “Follow me.”

Philip immediately obeys, then tells his friend, Nathanael, in John 1:45, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” And although Nathanael makes a rude remark about Nazareth, Philip invites his friend to,  “Come and see.”

Philip doesn’t go straight to Jesus with the Greeks’ request. He consults with Andrew, who has also introduced someone to Jesus. Andrew, in 1:40-42, after answering the call, tells his brother, Simon, “We have found the Messiah.” And he brings him to Jesus,  who looks at Simon and gives him a new name–“Cephas”–Peter. It isn’t clear why Philip goes first to Andrew for advice. He may be worried about the threats to Jesus’ life after he raises Lazarus from the dead; but those are coming from within the Jewish community, not from the Gentiles. Another reason for his hesitation may be that the disciples might not understand, yet, that the Messiah has come to save the world– and not just the Jewish people.

When Philip and Andrew finally go to him, Jesus doesn’t say if he will speak to the Gentiles, only that their coming signals the arrival of his “hour.”  The cross and his glorification loom ahead. But we can assume that he does welcome the Greeks because he says that when he will be “lifted up,” he will “draw all people” to himself. With the parable of a seed that dies but bears much fruit, he speaks of his death so that others might live, but also so that his disciples would be willing to give up their lives for His sake.

The most moving part of this passage is when we encounter the humanity of Christ. With the cross drawing near, Jesus says,  “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say,  ‘Father, save me from this hour?’” This is an echo of his prayers in Mark 14:35-36 and Matthew 26:39 that “if possible the hour might pass from him.”  ³⁶ “Abba, Father,” he says in Mark, “everything is possible for you.  Take this cup from me.” But Jesus will always respond in perfect obedience to God. “Yet not what I want, but what you want,” he says in Mark, Matthew and Luke 22:42.  “Father,” he says in John 14:28, “Glorify your name.”

Christ promises his everlasting presence to all who follow him, saying in John 12:26,  “²⁶Whoever serves me, must follow me,  and where I am, there will my servant be also.” This passage will come to mind later, in John 14, with another promise of his everlasting presence with his followers. After Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, breaks bread and shares the cup, and gives them a new commandment–to love one another, he comforts his fearful friends.  “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he says.  “Believe in God, believe also in me.” He will prepare a place for each one of them in His Father’s house. And he will come again to take them to himself. “So that where I am,”  he says, “there you may be also.”

***

Friends, the Greeks’ wish to see Jesus and Philip and Andrew’s reluctance to bring them to him stirs me to ask if we might be    hesitant to share Jesus with people who are different from us  –in language, culture, nationality or religion? How comfortable are we speaking with those of other faiths or those with no faith at all? We know what Jesus would say about our reluctance. For he was lifted up to draw all people to himself.

Let us recommit ourselves to following the Lord ever so closely and gratefully, being open to sharing Christ with everyone. Let us reveal God’s love through encouraging words and acts of kindness and generosity.  We can trust him to transform our hearts, remove fear or prejudice from us so we may reach out to others, like Philip and Andrew, extending invitations to friends, siblings and strangers to, “Come and see.”

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your transforming love for us and for your everlasting presence with us. We praise and thank you that you desire to draw all people to yourself. Guide us in your will; use us for your loving work. Remove all fear from us, Lord, for people who might be different than us. May we be perfectly obedient to you, following Christ’s example. Thank you for the ministries you have blessed us with at MIPC and for all the children and youth who participate in them. Bless them and their families, Lord! Empower us by your Spirit to reach out to our neighbors near and far, to be bold and invite friends, siblings and strangers to “come and see.” In Christ we pray. Amen.

 

 

Meditation on John 3:14-21

March 11, 2018

Merritt Island Presbyterian Church

     And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,  so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.  ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.  ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Those who believe in him are not condemned;  but those who do not believe are condemned already,  because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement,  that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light,  so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’ 

***

 

 The Rev. Jack “John” Borgal looks up reluctantly from his work–stacking and labeling boxes in a warehouse in a town on the Maryland/Pennsylvania border.  He smiles tentatively and invites me in with a gesture. He stutters and his hands flutter. He looks with wonder at the rows and rows of boxes of winter clothes–about 1,200 of them, ready for shipping to the Ukraine. It is as if he were seeing the project of his passion to help the poor in tangible ways through my eyes, the eyes of a stranger, a reporter from the York Daily Record.

And he is amazed at what God has done.

 

Every day, John stops at the post office to pick up boxes of clothing on his way to the warehouse. UPS delivers still more boxes to the warehouse in the afternoon. Volunteers from a church in Indiana would arrive in a few days to load the boxes onto a freight container. Then the donations would begin their month-long journey across the ocean to Kiev, where missionaries would distribute the items to people in need.

From 1992 to 2005, when I covered John’s story for the paper, the ministry had shipped more than 22,000 Dole banana boxes filed with clothing, shoes, and personal care items to 22 countries.  The warehouse in rural Fawn Grove, now called the Fawn Grove Compassion Center, is the only one of its kind in the Church of the Nazarene.

The ministry started with one empty banana box in John’s church.  Inspired by his passion to serve and give, donations of clothing, shoes and personal care items poured in. At first, boxes were stored inside the church–in the basement, hallways and even the pastor’s garage. The ministry grew and the church added storage trailers to the parking lot. The first container of clothing was ready to be shipped in 1992 to Mozambique,  a country embroiled in civil war and ravaged by drought and famine. But there was one small detail John had overlooked–the $8,000 shipping cost. He despaired briefly, but didn’t give up.

He asked the churches that sent in a box of clothing to send $8 for shipping. And they did. John taped all 1,200 boxes in the first shipment by himself.

John, appointed to the unpaid position of Compassion Ministries Coordinator for the Mid-Atlantic District of the Church of the Nazarene in 1991, learned that people in churches who couldn’t afford to go on mission trips and didn’t have much money to give still wanted to help people living in poverty.

  “They wanted to do more than pray,” John said. So he began to send monthly letters to the 90 plus Nazarene churches in the district asking for donations and teams of volunteers to help with the sorting, packing and loading of banana boxes.

The ministry in Fawn Grove continued to grow until, in 2000, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries hired him full time. A year later, the Fawn Grove church  took a leap of faith and borrowed $60,000 to pay for a 45 by 105 foot warehouse to store donations until they could be shipped.

The ministry branched out to include crisis care kits after the Kosovo conflict in 2000  and to countries recovering from natural disasters. In 2004, they started shipping packages of school supplies for children whose families could not afford them. Twenty containers holding 1,230 banana boxes each shipped in 2004 for missionaries to distribute in Poland, Jamaica, Nicaragua, Panama, Liberia and other places; 5,000 banana boxes were shipped to tsunami victims in Southeast Asia , Romania  and the Ukraine. A shipment of lightweight clothing and seven small refrigerators for vaccines traveled to HIV positive orphans and their caregivers in Zambia.

People in the Fawn Grove church contacted me at the newspaper when John received a $10,000 Passion Award from the Servant Christian Community Foundation, based in Kansas City. Their letter included one detail that made his ministry even more amazing to me. His ministry came together not long after he was diagnosed with a mental illness, bipolar disorder, which led him to give up serving as full time pastor and administrator of their Christian school.

It was John’s concern for the poor of God’s world that brought him wholeness and peace as he sought to serve the Lord with what he could do, without mourning what he could no longer do.

The organization that awarded him $10,000 for his ministry called him,  “Banana Box Man.”

 

***

John made the connection between God’s love for the world in John 3:16-17, and what God requires of us who have been saved from our sins.

The context of John 3 is that a Pharisee named Nicodemus,  a respected teacher and leader of the Jewish people, has come to Jesus at night with burning questions. He begins, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” His use of “we” hints that he is not the only secret believer in Christ.

Why at night? Some say it was because Jewish teachers studied at night, especially those who worked during the day. More likely, he comes at night to avoid being seen. As we read in John 12:42 and 43,  “Nevertheless many, even the authorities, believed in him.  But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it,  for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue…”   Coming to Jesus at night is also symbolic of him leaving the darkness of ignorance and sin and moving to the dawn of understanding in the light of Christ. Jesus, in John 12:46, speaks in terms of light and darkness again, saying,  “I have come as light into the world so that everyone  who believes in me should not remain in the darkness.”

Jesus foreshadows his death on a cross when he says that the Son of Man will be “lifted up.”  He compares his work for salvation to Moses’ in v. 14, who lifts up the serpent in the wilderness so that Israel,  who sinned against God and are dying after being bitten by snakes, would be saved.

All who believe in him, Christ says, and only those who believe in Him– will have “eternal life.”

Then Jesus talks about works and how they reveal who are believers. He isn’t saying that our works save us. He is simply saying that if we are his disciples, then we will do good deeds that will be “clearly seen” and be a witness to our faith. Others will see our deeds have been “done in God.” But some love the darkness and hate the light.  They don’t want their evil deeds exposed.

At the end of this passage, we are left wondering what Jesus thinks of Nicodemus. If he is a model for discipleship, his is very different than the model of discipleship of the Samaritan Woman with whom Jesus speaks at a well in John 4.  Though she won’t understand, at first, she will be moved during the conversation to believe in Christ and tell the world about him. Many come to the faith because of her. Is Jesus scolding Nicodemus in this conversation or encouraging him on his journey of faith? For one day in the future, Nicodemus and others will come out of the darkness to “do what is true” in the light. Nicodemus will reveal his heart for Christ  when he comes with Joseph of Arimethea to the cross in John 19:39. Together, they remove Christ’s body, then carry, anoint and bury him in an empty tomb.

We are left wondering, in this passage in John 3, about this God who sent the Son into the world, not to condemn it, but so “the world might be saved through him.” Has he left the door open a crack to the possibility that every human being might be saved?

We ask ourselves if what we do reveals the light of Christ within us. And does God desire to use us more to bring about his plan for the world’s salvation?

***

John Borgal thought his ministry years were over. He felt useless, worthless when he was diagnosed with a mental illness. But God had given him the gift of faith and a passion to help people around the world, people that God so loves.

John knew that God loved him and had a plan for him, just as we can be certain that God loves us and has a plan for us, too.

     If we believe in the God who so loves the world, the God who desires no one to perish, but all to have eternal life, then we, also, must love and serve the needy of our community and world.

“For we are God’s handiwork,” Paul says in Ephesians 2:10,  “created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

The blessings of service and giving are that we will find, as John Borgal did, our own healing and wholeness.

I leave you, once more, with a challenge. What new compassionate ministry can you and I do, starting small, and asking the Lord to grow it?  What will reveal the light of Christ to those who walk in darkness?

John’s ministry started with one empty banana box–sturdy, stackable, and free from local grocery stores.  His ministry grew by steps and leaps of faith and support from his church and denomination. One banana box at a time.

It has been nearly 13 years since I met with John. I looked for him on the Web yesterday. And I found him on a 2017 Facebook post for the Fawn Grove Compassion Center.

They call him, “Banana Box Man.”

 

Let us pray.

 

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your great love for the world that led you to send your Only Son to save us from our sins. Thank you for your desire for no one to perish, but for everyone to have everlasting life with you. Help us, Lord, that we may always walk in your light and be a witness to your mercy and grace and not be tempted to slip away to the darkness and hide our sins from you. Give us energy, compassion and creativity to help people struggling in poverty. Guide us in your will. Grant us faith and a willingness to make sacrifices for our neighbors, to give from the heart and from our abundance, Lord, because we have more than we think we do. Stir us to begin small and partner with other groups, perhaps, as John Borgal did, to serve and care for needy people in the world that you so love. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.