Well it was bound to happen: I screwed up while telling the gospel. The gospel for Sunday was John 14: 23-29 which is a very disjointed text. Basically the gospel is 7 verses that have very little in common (other than the first two). I had each section memorized individually but had a hard time remembering the order of the verses. But I thought I was good (though I had a cheat sheet in my alb pocket) and I got through verse 26 and then my mind went blank. And while I got out the cheat sheet I as then bad for the rest of the gospel. Oh well, we laughed and moved on.
This sermon looks at that gospel reading but it also looks at the first reading for the day Acts 16:9-15, Paul having a vision and going to Philipi where he meet Lydia. I did have a map during the sermon so the congregation could see where all the cities are mentioned, you can find a similar one here. Macedonia is in the upper left hand corner of the map.
What is your vision? What is your vision for your future? For Bethlehem?
What I have gathered from conversations with many of you over the last year is this congregation’s vision for the future: that Bethlehem will be a small strong congregation focused on being a true Christian community (worshiping the Triune God, loving and serving others) which is not focused on the things of this world (material goods, wealth, power) that is active in supporting the needs of this community and the world through giving and our time, talents, goods and other resources.
One definition of depression is not having positive future vision of yourself.And I think this vision is a positive one. I think that is an excellent vision. It is an excellent hope for our future and good start for discerning what God is calling us to do. And I say start because even though this congregation is over 100 years old and this vision is one that we are on our way of achieving, it is just a start because a like all good visions, it is one that will never be fully realized for there will always be new ways of being a Christian community, and new needs of the greater community and as we continue striving for this vision we will have new visions.
But just because we have a vision doesn’t mean that we know exactly how we are going to make that vision a reality or what each of the steps along the way are. A vision is not a plan, a vision is a hope for the future and idea about where, who and what God is calling you to be. And sometimes our visions, our hopes, especially collective ones, take years to fully grasp though sometimes they come to us in an instant, in a moment of clarity or in a dream. And sometimes they can be shocks to the system, an instant when you realize you are headed in a different direction than where God is calling you.
Paul had one of those moments of vision. During the night, probably through a dream, Paul sees a Macedonian (someone from modern day northern Greece) standing in front of him and immediately Paul knew that he was not to head east to Turkey but west to Macedonia.
And Paul traveled west.
But he didn’t know exactly where he was going. And he didn’t know exactly what he was supposed to do there. He went to Troas then Samothrace then Neapolis and then finally Philippi. And even in Philippi he wasn’t sure what exactly he was suppose to be doing. On the Sabbath he went outside the gate by the river where he supposed there was a place a prayer – Paul didn’t know for sure, he didn’t know what he was going to do there, who he was going to meet. He probably didn’t know when he set out for Macedonia that he would be thrown in jail, which we will hear about next week. He didn’t have a plan; he just knew what God was calling him to do.
But along the way, through his journey to Macedonia he preaches about Jesus, he heals people, he befriends them and he baptizes them. And one of the first people he meets in Philippi is Lydia, who soon is baptized along with her entire household. And Paul’s vision to come to Macedonia and help them starts to become a reality.
So what are our first steps to make this vision, this vision for Bethlehem, become a reality? What do we need to do now to have us be a small strong congregation focused on being a true Christian community which is not focused on the things of this world that is active in supporting the needs of this community and the world? What are things that we can do now to make this possible in the future? What are our first steps, our pits stops in Troas, Samothrace, and Neapolis so that we can go to our Philippi and beyond?
Now from here we can do two things… One, we can do what is very popular in modern culture and create a plan, figuring out each step in order to reach our vision and a timeline for when each step should be accomplished by. And while that is a wonderful option and many people, companies and churches use that option in order to make their visions a reality, it doesn’t leave a lot of room for the Holy Spirit to guide us to new visions along the way and it leaves a lot of room for failure which creates fear. What if we aren’t worshiping such a number by next fall? What if our giving doesn’t increase? What if a new ministry become evident and necessary but in order to attend to that ministry it will take us away from this plan?
So the other option is to just do. Start on the journey. Make those first few steps and see where God takes us. Churches with vision do ministry even if they do not have the finances and people to make it happen on paper. Churches and people with vision are not afraid because they make those first steps.
It means you individually making worship a priority in your life and encouraging others both members of this congregations and people in the greater community to make it a priority in their life to.
Having this vision for this congregation means being a good steward of your finances and times by giving generously to this congregation, the larger church and other ministries and encouraging others to do so.
Having this vision for Bethlehem means reading scripture personally and corporately in bible study and worship so that you can continue to received new vision for yourself and the congregation.
And having this vision for Bethlehem means being open to prayer, finding times and ways to pray that work for you. Moments when you can converse with God and continue to be open to the Spirit so that you know the next step on the journey, the next vision, and so you can give up to God any fears that you may have along the way.
We can start achieving this vision, we have started achieving this vision, with just a few steps because we are lead by the Spirit. Jesus has given us the Spirit, the Advocate, who as the gospel tells us, will teach us everything and remind us of what Jesus has said to us. And when we are lead by the Spirit, and when we are on the journey towards our vision we have nothing to fear. A vision is not a goal, a thing that we must achieve by a certain deadline, but a way of living in the idea of who, what and where God is calling us to be and there is no need to fear that, no need to fear that we will miss the mark. Because as long as we living out part of that vision, striving for that ideal, we have no quota to meet, no deadlines. >And sometime we might stray from this vision because a new vision has been given to us, but that is not something to fear. Instead we have the hope and joy of knowing that God loves us, Jesus died for us and the Holy Spirit lives in us. And through God we will be able to journey towards this vision and the many other visions that we will receive along the way.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Book of Faith
On Saturday I and another member of Bethlehem went to the New England Synod Book of Faith Festival. The Book of Faith is an initiative in the ELCA in order to get people to become more familiar with the bible. As the Book of Faith website says: The purpose of the Book of Faith Initiative is to increase biblical literacy and fluency for the sake of the world.
The brief history of the Book of Faith initiative is that in 2005 a church in North Carolina brought a resolution to their synod assembly that the ELCA encourage more bible study. This then came to the national assembly in 2007 where the resolution overwhelmingly passed. Since then the ELCA and its publishing house Augsburg Fortress has produced a new study bible (the Lutheran Study Bible), a new Sunday School curriculum and children's bible (Spark materials) and multiple Book of Faith bible study materials that look at themes in the bible, books of the bible and people in the bible.
The festival on Saturday was a way for people in New England to come together in celebration of the Bible and the Book of Faith Initiative and learn how to better do bible study. We did this through worship, keynote addresses and workshops.
The day began with morning worship and a keynote address by Dr. Diane Jacobson, the director of the Book of Faith Initiative. Dr. Jacobson discussed some of the things that keep people from bible study - time commitments, the idea that you need to be an expert, it can be confusing, we are a instant gratification culture and bible study takes time. She also discussed what the Book of Faith Initiative is and what it is not - it is way of encouraging people to read scripture in ways that are engaging to them, it is for all people not just adults, it is conversation, it is not a specific curriculum.
We then broke out into workshops. I attended two, one on small church Sunday School and another on hospitality. I highly enjoyed the Sunday School one and got some specific ideas on how to support our Sunday school teachers and make the program better for next year. The hospitality workshop was good but more of a general conversation about hospitality in churches. I think most attendees wanted to hear about being hospitable to visitors and welcoming the community and the leader was more focused on how to extend hospitality to refugees and homeless people in our midst. So while the conversation was good, I didn't get as many specific ideas to bring back to the congregation.
The Dr. Jacobson's afternoon address lead us through the four ways of reading scripture for study. Here is part of a hand out which sums up the address:
Devotional Reading (no experts...thank you very much)
Overall it was a great experience. I enjoyed my day at the festival and hope that I'll be able to continue to help grow bible study at Bethlehem.
The brief history of the Book of Faith initiative is that in 2005 a church in North Carolina brought a resolution to their synod assembly that the ELCA encourage more bible study. This then came to the national assembly in 2007 where the resolution overwhelmingly passed. Since then the ELCA and its publishing house Augsburg Fortress has produced a new study bible (the Lutheran Study Bible), a new Sunday School curriculum and children's bible (Spark materials) and multiple Book of Faith bible study materials that look at themes in the bible, books of the bible and people in the bible.
The festival on Saturday was a way for people in New England to come together in celebration of the Bible and the Book of Faith Initiative and learn how to better do bible study. We did this through worship, keynote addresses and workshops.
The day began with morning worship and a keynote address by Dr. Diane Jacobson, the director of the Book of Faith Initiative. Dr. Jacobson discussed some of the things that keep people from bible study - time commitments, the idea that you need to be an expert, it can be confusing, we are a instant gratification culture and bible study takes time. She also discussed what the Book of Faith Initiative is and what it is not - it is way of encouraging people to read scripture in ways that are engaging to them, it is for all people not just adults, it is conversation, it is not a specific curriculum.
We then broke out into workshops. I attended two, one on small church Sunday School and another on hospitality. I highly enjoyed the Sunday School one and got some specific ideas on how to support our Sunday school teachers and make the program better for next year. The hospitality workshop was good but more of a general conversation about hospitality in churches. I think most attendees wanted to hear about being hospitable to visitors and welcoming the community and the leader was more focused on how to extend hospitality to refugees and homeless people in our midst. So while the conversation was good, I didn't get as many specific ideas to bring back to the congregation.
The Dr. Jacobson's afternoon address lead us through the four ways of reading scripture for study. Here is part of a hand out which sums up the address:
Devotional Reading (no experts...thank you very much)
- What scares, confuses or challenges you in this text?
- What delight you in the text?
- What stories or memories does this text stir in you?
- What is God up to in the text?
- What insights from history would be helpful to know in order to hear, read, study or understand this passage?
- Do we know anything about who wrote the passage?
- Why was the text written?
- Where was the text written and what do we know about that part of the world?
- When was the text written, and what was going on in the world at that time?
- A great way to do this is to mark the text with asterisk were you want a study note then researching the internet, study bibles and other resources for answers.
- What type of literature is that passage? (letter, poem, history, etc)
- What is the plot?
- Who are the characters?
- What is the theme of the passage?
- What is the setting of the passage?
- In what ways is the text leading us to Christ?
- In what ways do we hear law?
- In what ways do we hear gospel?
Overall it was a great experience. I enjoyed my day at the festival and hope that I'll be able to continue to help grow bible study at Bethlehem.
Monday, May 3, 2010
Love! Love! Love!
It has been a busy couple of days here. Saturday I went to a Book of Faith Festival which I'll post about in a few days. Sunday morning was worship followed by a baby shower for two members of Bethlehem who are expecting a son at the end of the month. And yesterday afternoon I provided dinner at Luther House at Yale, which I'll probably also write about in a few days. But as I post most Sunday afternoons or Mondays I wanted to talk about worship.
Yesterday I just had fun in worship and I think the majority of the congregation did too. The opening hymn is one of my newer favorites (then again I have about 300 favorite hymns) We're Marching to Zion. It has a wonderful rhythm with a double clap beat and while a new hymn for Bethlehem I think others enjoyed the hymn and I even got a few people clapping. (Which if you aren't familiar with Lutheran churches, is VERY difficult to do.)
I didn't have a manuscript for my sermon because I decided to do more of a bible study format sermon. The gospel text is John 13:31-35. At first glance text seems to have three unrelated segments: a very confusing section about God, the Son of Man, glorification and lots of "him"s. A middle section when Jesus tells his disciples that he is only with them a little longer and a final section when Jesus gives the new commandment to love one another just as he has love them.
On Mondays, I send out an email to the congregation with links to the lessons for the coming Sunday along with some questions to chew on. This last Monday I joked that John 13:31-32 needs a flow chart so you can follow it. But instead of a flow chart I started with a Mad Libs. On a sheet of paper I wrote:
Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in _______. If God has been glorified in ______, God will glorify _______ in ______self and will glorify ______ at once.
We then filled in the "he"s and "him"s with who they are which we decided were:
Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in the Son of Man (aka Jesus). If God has been glorified in Jesus, God will glorify Jesus in Godself and will glorify God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit/All at once.
We then talked about glorify means. Some responses were: respect, honor, praise, worship, dignify.
So the second Mad-Lib looked like this:
Now the Son of Man has been ______ and God has been ______ in _______. If God has been ______ in ______, God will ______ _______ in ______self and will ______ ______ at once.
We then filled it in to read like this:
Now the Son of Man has been praised and God has been honored in the Son of Man (aka Jesus). If God has been respected in Jesus, God will worship Jesus in Godself and will dignify God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit/All at once.
We then discussed how we can glorify God, by asking the Lutheran Question: What does this mean to us? And of course one of the answers was to love others.
Which lead to the questions: what does it mean to love others? and how can we love others? At this point we sang a very jazzy version of Jesus Loves Me and one of the congregation members played the spoons while Lyudmila rocked out on the piano.
I then finished by talking about how sometimes it is hard to love others, it is hard to share with a stranger, it is hard to always listen to and not take advantage of the people we know best and it is hard to engage in conversation with the person who is an acquaintance. But we are able to share with, listen to, engage with, touch, respect, take delight in, and care for others because Jesus shares with, listens to, engages with, touches, respects, takes delight in and cares for us. And we are only able to love others because Jesus first loves us.
Overall it was just a fun service.
And the day was made even more delightful because after worship we had a baby shower. The amount of love that is shown to one another in this tiny church is amazing. Last week myself and one of the other planners of the shower were worried that no one would show up because no one had signed up, but we had over 20 people stay after worship for lunch and presents and I don't think the new parents will have to buy clothes for the baby any time soon.
I think it really says something when people have fun at church!
Yesterday I just had fun in worship and I think the majority of the congregation did too. The opening hymn is one of my newer favorites (then again I have about 300 favorite hymns) We're Marching to Zion. It has a wonderful rhythm with a double clap beat and while a new hymn for Bethlehem I think others enjoyed the hymn and I even got a few people clapping. (Which if you aren't familiar with Lutheran churches, is VERY difficult to do.)
I didn't have a manuscript for my sermon because I decided to do more of a bible study format sermon. The gospel text is John 13:31-35. At first glance text seems to have three unrelated segments: a very confusing section about God, the Son of Man, glorification and lots of "him"s. A middle section when Jesus tells his disciples that he is only with them a little longer and a final section when Jesus gives the new commandment to love one another just as he has love them.
On Mondays, I send out an email to the congregation with links to the lessons for the coming Sunday along with some questions to chew on. This last Monday I joked that John 13:31-32 needs a flow chart so you can follow it. But instead of a flow chart I started with a Mad Libs. On a sheet of paper I wrote:
Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in _______. If God has been glorified in ______, God will glorify _______ in ______self and will glorify ______ at once.
We then filled in the "he"s and "him"s with who they are which we decided were:
Now the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in the Son of Man (aka Jesus). If God has been glorified in Jesus, God will glorify Jesus in Godself and will glorify God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit/All at once.
We then talked about glorify means. Some responses were: respect, honor, praise, worship, dignify.
So the second Mad-Lib looked like this:
Now the Son of Man has been ______ and God has been ______ in _______. If God has been ______ in ______, God will ______ _______ in ______self and will ______ ______ at once.
We then filled it in to read like this:
Now the Son of Man has been praised and God has been honored in the Son of Man (aka Jesus). If God has been respected in Jesus, God will worship Jesus in Godself and will dignify God/Jesus/the Holy Spirit/All at once.
We then discussed how we can glorify God, by asking the Lutheran Question: What does this mean to us? And of course one of the answers was to love others.
Which lead to the questions: what does it mean to love others? and how can we love others? At this point we sang a very jazzy version of Jesus Loves Me and one of the congregation members played the spoons while Lyudmila rocked out on the piano.
I then finished by talking about how sometimes it is hard to love others, it is hard to share with a stranger, it is hard to always listen to and not take advantage of the people we know best and it is hard to engage in conversation with the person who is an acquaintance. But we are able to share with, listen to, engage with, touch, respect, take delight in, and care for others because Jesus shares with, listens to, engages with, touches, respects, takes delight in and cares for us. And we are only able to love others because Jesus first loves us.
Overall it was just a fun service.
And the day was made even more delightful because after worship we had a baby shower. The amount of love that is shown to one another in this tiny church is amazing. Last week myself and one of the other planners of the shower were worried that no one would show up because no one had signed up, but we had over 20 people stay after worship for lunch and presents and I don't think the new parents will have to buy clothes for the baby any time soon.
I think it really says something when people have fun at church!
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