PSALM 66 "Spacious Spirituality"

 

SPACIOUS SPIRITUALITY

a sermon by wayne mclaughlin

Psalm 66.1-12; Luke 17.11-19

___________________________________

Spaciousness in Scripture

The idea of spaciousness being part of spirituality has intrigued me for a long time. So, when I read today’s Psalm I knew I had to focus on delve into the meaning of a spacious spirituality.

The NRSV translates verse 12 of Psalm 66 like this:

…you let people ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a spacious place.

The Hebrew word for ‘spacious place’ can be rendered slightly differently according to the context. Even here in Psalm 66 we find various renderings:

CEV: place of plenty

CEB: freedom

NET: a wide open space

The same word is translated in other passages as: abundance; a watered place; safety; overflowing; a broad place; lots of room. So, the picture we get is of a place that is safe, well provided for, wide open, and offering freedom. 

You have brought us out to a spacious place.

Back in Exodus three, where Moses sees the burning bush and God speaks to him, commissioning him to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free, we see this spacious term. The NRSV says,

I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

The NIV renders ‘a good and broad land’ as a spacious land. This is the Promised Land—flowing with milk and honey. So, the spacious place that the Psalmist writes about is the Land of Promise—the goal of our journey with God. Therefore, a spacious spirituality is what we should all be aiming for.

Psalm 31.8 speaks of one person’s experience with God:

O God, you have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.(spacious place)

Psalm 18.19 is another personal testimony:

He brought me out into a broad place (spacious place); he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

Egypt = Narrow

In the Twenty-third Psalm there is the verse: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. The word translated ‘enemies’ is tzorrai, and it literally means ‘my narrows’ or ‘those who narrow me.’ Think about it. An enemy is one who makes me and my surroundings ‘narrow.’ Prisoners are put in small cells. The oppressed end up living in small spaces. If you live under a dictator, your life is restricted—narrowed. 

The root of the Hebrew word tzorrai (enemies) is tzar (narrow). And it is also the root of the Hebrew word Mitzrayim--Egypt. In the Bible, Egypt is the place of slavery, bondage, captivity. Egypt literally means ‘the narrow place.’  

The Big Event in the Old Testament is the Exodus—the escape from Egypt—escape from slavery—escape from the narrow, restricted life of bondage under Pharaoh. Jewish spirituality is about freedom. Freedom is the escape from slavery into the freedom of a spacious land.

Jesus went to the synagogue in his home town; he preached to them and said, “I have come to set the captives free.”

St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there 

A spacious freedom is what God calls us to. 

Spacious Breathing

Think about all the meditative practices of religious traditions both East and West. A common element in virtually all practices of meditation is quiet, slow breathing. Many practices have you pay attention to the breath. What happens when we calm ourselves down and breathe slowly? Well, we relax. Tight muscles become loose. Cluttered minds become more spacious. 

The tight muscles around the heart and other places in the body that restrict breathing are relaxed and we feel more freedom in our breathing. A heart attack is a constricting of muscles around the heart that stop blood from flowing. The opposite of this constricting, gripping action is an opening up, a relaxing of muscles which makes flow easier and brings a ‘spaciousness’ to the physical places.

Meditation and contemplative disciplines are designed to help us open up—to enable our hearts to become spacious.

Emptiness in Our Seal

Have you ever taken a good look at the official Presbyterian (USA) Seal? It is an amazing design. There are ten or eleven separate symbols contained in the Seal. The one I want to point out is invisible, in a way. Do you see the open spaces inside the Seal? That is on purpose. It symbolizes the open space that the Reformed Theological Tradition gives for the Holy Spirit to work. In the empty spaces inside the Seal there is room for the Spirit of God to move around. That’s the freedom of God. And that is the sovereignty of God. That is spiritual space. But it may also speak of the fact that God gives us spaciousness in our spiritual life. We are not hemmed in by doctrines and polity and tradition. Because the Holy Spirit opens up space for the movement of faith and hope and love.

Relational Space

And spiritual space is meant for movement. It is not simply a space for sitting around. The Dalai Lama says, 

The moment you think of helping others, the mind expands  and our own problems seem smaller.

As we develop a spacious mind—our mind expands and begins within us a movement outward toward helping others.

 Tara Bennett-Coleman is a psychotherapist, a teacher of meditation, and a horse whisperer student. Her book Mind Whispering frequently mentions psychological or spiritual space. She writes,

Compassion reduces our fears and distrust and opens a calm                 space in our hearts and minds.  

It is out of this calm place in our hearts that we are able to overcome selfishness and fear and go out of ourselves to be of help to other people in need. 

And creating a spacious mind can help us relate in a more healthy way toward ourselves and others, particularly in tense situations. Tara Bennett-Coleman tells of a client of hers who was having trouble working with a person in her business. The client was feeling anger toward the other person whom she described as selfish and controlling. But she said to Bennett-Coleman:

I decided to give this relationship a lot of space in my mind. I               didn’t focus on the anger or the person, but on a larger awareness         containing it all, giving it a lot of space. After about ten minutes  I felt my mind expanding—I had a larger perspective while                     staying with the issue at hand. As my attention got clarified, I felt         myself becoming less reactive. I was able to remember an                      important detail that would be helpful when it came time to                 communicate with this person. It seemed more possible to stand             my ground while we talked. 

All of us have been in tense situations with people we work with or with family members. We might describe our experience a little differently. I  would say that there have been times when I have mentally back away from a situation to look at it from a psychological distance to gain perspective. There is a term used by Conflict Managers who work with churches. They say, “Sit in the balcony.” They mean that when we lift ourselves mentally out of a situation and look at it from a more objective place, we can better understand what is going on and what we can or cannot do about it.

That’s another way of talking about expanding the mind and creating space in a situation or relationship. I think this is a good, practical application of ‘spiritual spaciousness.’ There is a psychological component. We allow other people to be themselves; and we have the wisdom to be ourselves; and a healthy space opens up between us—a space that gives us the freedom to be authentic and honest and empathetic. It’s a spiritual space.

Sky  Meditation

A good way to start your day is to walk outside and look up at the sky—the wide open sky, and take in the spaciousness of the sky. If there are clouds blocking your view of the sky, that’s all right. That’s like life. Whenever we experience something or someone blocking our joy, we can remind ourselves that reality is like the sky—open and spacious behind the clouds. We might call this little exercise the Sky Meditation. The source of this type of meditation is our own Scriptures:

God brought us out to a spacious land.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Liberalism

My experience has been that the liberal form of Christianity is much more spacious than a conservative form of the Christian Faith. Liberalism is defined as being open-minded; or we could say, ‘spacious-minded.’ Liberalism resists narrow, rigid rules and laws. Liberals believe in laws that are tolerant and humane. Liberal forms of religion emphasize the importance of relationships over rules; love over laws; and newness over narrowness. A spacious  spirituality is a liberal spirituality.

Samaritan Spirituality

In our gospel reading we see what might be called a ‘Samaritan Spirituality.’ The one person who returns to thank Jesus for healing is a Samaritan! An outsider. Luke, in telling us this story, makes the Samaritan the hero. It is a way of saying to the Church, be welcoming to the outsider, for in doing so you will find people of faith. Let the Church expand its circle of fellowship so that there is more space for everyone. Be inclusive. Inclusivity is a spacious spirituality.

The second element in our gospel reading is gratitude. Practicing gratitude is a way of opening up our hearts. Being thankful is part of a spacious spirituality.

And third, gratitude always accompanies generosity. The other Samaritan in Luke’s gospel—the Good Samaritan—risked his own safety in order to help a beaten-up man on the road to Jericho. The Samaritan gave him first aid, gave him transportation to a guest house, and gave the owner of the guest house money for taking care of the wounded man until he returned. He gave money. Generosity is part of spacious spirituality because it comes from a big, wide open heart.

This is the spacious land that God leads us to. A spiritual ‘place’ of much ‘space.’ It is welcoming of all people; inclusive. It is willing to risk oneself in order to bring health and justice to people who need it. It is a freedom to be oneself, and to give room for others to be themselves. It is a spirit of generosity, gratitude and gentleness. It is broad-minded and tolerant and open to the new. It produces a peace and calmness of mind that is able to clarify situations and make wise decisions based on reality. It is a source of compassion and empathy.

So, God invites you and me to live in this spacious place—to enter every day—to be free; to look at the sky, and to be led by the Holy Spirit.

1894/15:00

PSALM 27 JAN. 26, 2014 "The Beauty of the Lord"

 

THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD

a sermon by wayne mclaughlin

Third Sunday after the Epiphany

January 26, 2014

________________________

HEBREW SCRIPTURE READING

Psalm 27.1, 4-9

1 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

4 One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after:

to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,

to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

5 For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble; he will conceal me under the cover of his tent; he will set me high on a rock.

6 Now my head is lifted up above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy; I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

7 Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me! 8 “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!” Your face, Lord, do I seek. 9 Do not hide your face from me. Do not turn your servant away in anger, you who have been my help. Do not cast me off, do not forsake me. O God of my salvation!

GOSPEL READING Matthew 4.12-23

12 Now when Jesus heard that John was arrested, he went to Galilee. 13 He left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said:

15 Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, alongside the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, 16 the people who lived in the dark have seen a great light and a light has come upon those who lived in the region and in shadow of death.

17 From that time Jesus began to announce, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!”

18 As Jesus walked alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 20 Right away, they left their nets and followed him. 21 Continuing on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father repairing their nets. Jesus called them and 22 immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

23 Jesus traveled throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues. He announced the good news of the kingdom and healed every disease and sickness among the people.

***

An Ugly Bible?

When I was in college I read a book by the mathematician/philosopher Bertrand Russell entitled, Why I Am Not A Christian. He said one of his reasons for rejecting Christianity was that it doesn't appreciate Beauty. Well, is he right?

If you look at the Book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Scriptures, you'll find this verse:  Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain. (31.30) That pretty much sums up much of the Bible's attitude toward beauty. Of course the Bible is paranoid about beautiful women. Another verse in Proverbs says:  Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes. (6.25) Those seductive women—you have to watch out for them! This verse from Proverbs has always been one of my favorites:  Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without good sense. (11.22) 

When we turn to the New Testament, we find a similar suspicion of outward beauty. 1 Peter 3.3-4, written to wives, says: Do not adorn yourselves outwardly by braiding your hair, and by wearing gold ornaments or fine clothes; rather, let your adornment be the inner self with the lasting beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in God's sight.

Eye v. Ear

The Bible's seeming lack of appreciation for beauty is partly due to the Hebraic mindset. Eugene Peterson points out in his book Working the Angles that the Hebraic culture revolved around the auditory, whereas the Hellenistic culture revolved around the visual. The Greeks had statues all over the place. The stage—the theater—was big for them. And the naked human body was to the Greeks a work of art. That culture was oriented toward the visual. Not so with the Hebrew culture. Hearing the Word was primary with the Jews. The Shema from Deuteronomy six begins, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord."

The Jews were suspicious of visual images. The very first commandment told them not to make graven images. In the story of Adam and Eve the storyteller says, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes...she took of its fruit and ate." (Gen. 3.6) It was the visual dimension of the temptation that is recounted. God had spoken to them...They had heard God with their ears...But the tree was seen with the eyes. In the Hebrew mind it is the visual that gets people into trouble. Therefore, beauty is not highly prized.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Isaiah, in the fourth Suffering Servant Song, says that the coming Messiah will not  be beautiful:

For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.  (53.2, NRSV)

Compare the translation of the New Jerusalem Bible:

Like a sapling he grew up before him, like a root in arid ground. He had no form or charm to attract us, no beauty to win our hearts.

Isaiah is saying that the coming of the Servant of God (the Messiah) will not be with outward beauty, but with the inner power of God's Spirit. Our speculative pictures of Jesus portray him as good looking guy. But according to the Scripture's messianic vision, we should not expect a particularly attractive man.

Bolding the Beauty

Which brings me to our text for the day. From Psalm 27:  

One thing have I asked of you, Yahweh, this I seek: to dwell in your house all the days of my life, to behold your beauty and to contemplate on your Temple.

The Psalmist wants to be in the presence of God, and to gaze upon the beauty of God. The beauty of God.  

What does that mean? God is not visible. How do we "see" the beauty of God? The great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas said:

The highest beauty is in the Godhead, since beauty consists in comeliness: but God is beauty itself, beautifying all things.

God is Beauty itself!

Another great theologian of the Christian Tradition is St. Augustine. He pursued God with all his might and all his intellect. In his writing called The Confessions, Augustine speaks to God and says,

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient yet ever new, late have I loved you! You were inside me all the time but I was running around outside. I was looking for you outside and, ugly as I was, I threw myself at all those beautiful things that you had made. [Confessions of St. Augustine, 10.27]

He addressed God as ‘Beauty.’ Have you ever called God ‘Beauty’? It might be interesting for all of us the rest of this month, as we pray in private, to address God as ‘Beauty.’ For example: "O Beauty, I thank you for the your presence."

Augustine found God within. He found God to be the beauty within himself!

One more quote. The 17th century English mystic, Thomas Traherne, wrote: 

To know God is to know goodness. It is to see the beauty of infinite love. 

The beauty of infinite love!

The Attractive Cross

The beauty of God may be that quality of God that attracts us toward the Divine. What comes to my mind is something Jesus said in John's gospel:

And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.  (12.32)

Jesus is referring to his death—being lifted up on the cross. That event, he says, will draw all people to him. The cross will have a drawing (or attracting) power. 

Nowhere are the graciousness and the goodness and the favor of God shown so clearly and intensely as on the cross of Calvary. There, outside Jerusalem, the Messiah, described by Isaiah as a "non-attractive" person—there on the cross, is an ugly scene, and yet, a beautiful scene. Somehow in the ugliness of that execution we who see with eyes of faith are able to see the beauty of God. Paul writes to the Corinthian believers and says that the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Cor. 1.18)

 In the same way we could say: the ugliness of the cross is the beauty of God to those who have been caught up in the process of redemption.

Burning Beauty

Years ago I heard the story of a woman who recounted a terrible thing that happened when she was just a little girl. She and her younger brother were asleep in their room, and a fire broke out in the house. They didn't wake up, but continued to sleep. But their mother woke up, smelled the smoke, and ran toward their room.

The fire had already progressed to the point that blazes were shooting up in front of her and blocking the way to the children’s room. That didn't stop her. She ran right to their door...When she grabbed the door knob, it was so hot that her hand was badly burned, but she held onto it to get the door open, went in and picked up her children in her arms and took them to safety, just in time.

When she got outside she discovered that her hands had been very badly burned as she had groped through the house trying to get to the children’s room. All through her life, that mother had to cope with those badly burned hands. Other people would look at them and turn away. Her hand were ugly and freakish looking.

But the woman telling the story (the woman who had been that little girl asleep during the fire) said, "My mother's hands are the most beautiful hands in the whole world.  Other people don't see them that way, but my brother and I look at them and see beauty." 

Jesus calls each one of us to leave behind all lesser goals and follow him. Join him in his vulnerable, self-giving life style, and live a beautiful life.

As we empty ourselves we are fulfilled.

And that's the beauty of it.

PSALM 71 God As Midwife Aug. 25, 2019

 God As Midwife

a sermon by wayne mclaughlin

Leeds Presbyterian Church

August 25, 2019

____________________

Jeremiah 1.4-10

Now the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.” But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am only a boy’; for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and you shall speak whatever I command you.

Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, says the Lord.” Then the Lord put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said to me, “Now I have put my words in your mouth. See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to pull down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Psalm 71.1-6

In you, O Lord, I take refuge;

    let me never be put to shame.

In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;

    incline your ear to me and save me.

Be to me a rock of refuge,

    a strong fortress, to save me,

    for you are my rock and my fortress.

Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,

    from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.

For you, O Lord, are my hope,

    my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

    it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.

My praise is continually of you.

Luke 13.10-17

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, “There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water? And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?” When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

SERMON TEXT:

Images of God

About the time I was graduating from college the Feminist Movement was beginning to find expression in the Church. In the late 1960s and early 70s feminist theologians and feminist Bible scholars began publishing books on feminist ways to read the Bible. I became excited about this new way to delve into Scripture because it opened my eyes to passages in the Bible I had never paid attention to before. Feminist Biblical scholarship has helped the Church find treasures in the Bible that were there all along, but had been ignored for centuries.

Our Psalm this morning is a case in point. Psalm 71 says:

For you, O Lord, are my hope,

    my trust, O Lord, from my youth.

Upon you I have leaned from my birth;

    it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.

Did you hear that? The writer of Psalm 71 is saying that the Lord was the midwife at his birth. Let me read someone else’s translation:

I’ve leaned on you for support 

since the day I was born.

You were the midwife who delivered me from my mother’s womb,

the safe hands who pulled me gasping into life.

I’ll never stop thanking you for that!

[©2001 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net]

Here is the Common English Bible translation:

   You, Lord, are the one I’ve trusted since childhood.

I’ve depended on you from birth—

    you cut the cord when I came from my mother’s womb.

We imagine God in many ways: as father, shepherd, king, Lord, rock, eagle, the wind, breath, etc. Here is another Scriptural picture of God that we can use in our thoughts and in our prayers: God as a midwife. That’s different; yet, it’s in the Bible. God as a midwife.

Cross—deliverance

When Jesus was being put to death on a Roman cross he was able, between gasps for air, to get some words out. One of those statements was this: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That sentence is the first verse of Psalm 22. Could it be that he went on and quoted the whole Psalm? Could it be that while on the cross Jesus said,

6  But I am a worm, and not human;

    scorned by others, and despised by the people.

7 All who see me mock at me;

    ………

9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb;

    you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

Here is another time in the Psalms when God is described as a midwife. Psalm 22.9: It was you who took me from the womb; you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.

It could very well be that Jesus, while suffering and dying on the cross, remembered God’s ministry of midwifery. It very well could be that Jesus, on the cross, was quoting Psalm 22 in order to remind himself and everyone around him that the God who is at our birth is also at our death—to deliver us from the darkness of death into the light of a new birth into eternal joy.

Soft power

Juliana Claassens has written a book titled, Mourner, Mother, Midwife: Reimagining God’s Delivering Presence in the Old Testament. She points out how the feminine language describing God tends to soften the terminology about God’s deliverance as the Warrior-God. So often in the Hebrew Bible God comes across as a macho, masculine “I’ll-show- you” kind of God as he delivers the people of Israel from danger. He delivers them by the sword, by violence, by military offenses. 

Midwifery is also “deliverance language,” but a more tender and intimate kind of deliverance. In both Psalm 22 and 71 the writer opts for this intimate, feminine language for God’s deliverance. The Psalmist reimagines God in a helpful way. 

It is important to realize that Biblical writers felt free to imagine God, using a variety of terminology that reflects our human experiences and relationships. All religious language is symbolic. Symbolic language tells us something that is true, but something that is beyond our complete understanding. It is true and not true at the same time. That is, symbolic language points us to the true God, and conveys truth to us, while at the same time reminding us that our knowledge is only partial.

What is happening as these feminine pictures of God arise in the Psalms is a “softer” or more tender picture of God. That process is taking place all through Scripture and culminates with Jesus who presents us with a picture of God who is completely loving, forgiving, and non-violent.

Inferences

As we hold in our minds and hearts the thought of God as a midwife, what inferences can we draw from that mental picture?

First, like a midwife, God knows when the time has come. We too need to watch for signs of coming birth. Is something about to be born in our nation? In our church? In your life? Is something new on its way? God knows when the time is right. We have to be ready. 

Second, the birth itself is hard. You have to know when to bear down and when to back off. You have to concentrate. You have to breathe. It’s hard. They aren’t called “labor pains” for nothing (says the man standing in the pulpit who has never been through labor). 

Of course I don’t know what it’s like, except from one looking on. I helped my wife during her labor when our daughter was born. I was there by her side, reminding her to breathe correctly. She told me to shut up! 

When we think of God as a midwife, it might help us feel Her support, Her expertise. God knows what we’re going through. She can help us. She is right there when we need Her! She will encourage us to keep on keeping on until the birth is complete.

The third inference is that during labor you have to push. There are times in our lives when it is necessary to be “pushy.” God is with us to tell us when to push—when to be assertive or even aggressive. 

Jesus turned over the tables in the temple. It was a time to push. At that moment he didn’t care who got in the way. We don’t see the “pushy” Jesus very often in the gospels, but sometimes the occasion calls for it. Jesus knew when to push, because his Father in heaven was a Midwife.

There are times in our lives when, in order to bring facilitate new life, we have to push someone out of the way.

The fourth inference is this: the midwife cuts the cord. The cutting may seem cruel, but it has to be done if the child is to begin its new life. There are times when we want to hold on—to stay connected to someone or something in our lives, but we know that is not the best thing to do. But it’s hard let go—hard to cut the cord. 

One of the most difficult moments in my life was when I drove my daughter to Xavier University in Cincinnati and took her up to her dorm room, and had to leave her there. I cried like a baby. Well, we only have one child. But I bet it’s the same way if you have ten children. Every time one leaves the nest it’s like cutting the cord for their second birth, their new beginning. That’s hard. But it is part of life. 

God as our midwife helps us through that process. She is experienced with births. She birthed the whole world. She understands life. She created it. We can trust Her. 

The unbiblical cord

The umbilical cord is a temporary connection. When a baby is born, and thereby becomes a “person,” the cord must severed. From that time on as we go through life and grow physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, we find that it is necessary to time and again to develop new connections and to severe connections. It’s an ongoing process.

Every Sunday we pray to God and says, Delivery us from temptation. Every time God “delivers” us from a temptation, God is our midwife: delivering us again. Temptations happen when we have a desire to attached ourselves to something that we should not be attached to. God as midwife severs that attachment. God cuts the cord again and again and again.

By the guidance of the Scripture and the Spirit we are able to live the right kind of life. We strive to live Biblically. But when temptation comes along we feel the desire to live unBiblically. That’s when God cuts the “unbiblical umbilical” cord. Yes, the unBiblical umbilical cord!

Comprehensive

From womb to tomb God is with us. Psalms 22 and 71 give us this marvelous mental picture of God who has been with us from the beginning, and will be with us to the end.

Jeremiah says that God called him while he was still in utero. Even while Jeremiah was being “formed” in the womb—before he was even a person—God has plans for him. Before we are born. Even before we are conceived, God knows who we are. All through life, and even after death, God continues to know us as we continue to exist by his grace.

God’s knowledge of us, and God’s love for us, is totally comprehensive; yet, we cannot comprehend it with our puny little minds. What we can do is trust. 

The Gospel of Luke says:

And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years. She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your ailment.” When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God. 

The healing hands of Jesus are the same hands that took us from our mother’s womb and brought us into this adventure we call life. If we pay attention we will see the Hand of God at work in our lives day after day. 

"Footprints" -- PSALM 77 JUNE 30, 2013

"Footprints"

a sermon by wayne mclaughlin

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C

June 30, 2013

Psalm 77.1-2, 11-20

Galatians 5.1, 13-25

________________________________

I assume most of you have heard or read this poem titled, “Footprints In The Sand":

One night a man had a dream. He dreamed he was walking along the beach with the LORD.

Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.

For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand.

He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the LORD about it:

"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow you, you'd walk with me all the way.

But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life,

there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:

"My son, my precious child, I love you and I would never leave you.

During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you." 

(I have seen this poem attributed to Mary Stevenson or Carolyn Joyce Carty)

It’s a nice poem. Makes me want to tear up a bit. And it invites serious reflection on our faith and how we understand the presence of God.

THE EXODUS

But there is actually a verse in the Bible about footprints that also invites our reflection. It is in today’s Psalm:

Your way was through the sea, your path, through the mighty waters; yet your footprints were unseen. (Ps. 77.19, NRSV)

Here we have the unseen footprints of God. Arguably the most important event in the Hebrew Scriptures is the Exodus— the story of God delivering the Israelites from slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt.

The story says that God opened the waters

of the Red Sea

so that the Jews could walk across the ocean floor and escape to their freedom.

But here’s the point: No one saw God. He did not materialize. In fact, he didn’t even leave any footprints! He was invisible.

Then how did the Jewish people know it was God? Centuries later when they wrote this story down, a story that had obviously beentold over and over again through centuries, how could they be sure God was involved?

Well, for one thing, their leader, Moses, had told them that he heard God speak from a bush—a flaming bush—and God told him to lead the people out of Egypt.

And for another thing, there was no way they could have escaped by themselves. The impossible happened.

And ever since then the Jewish people have said that the way to know if God is behind some action or event is to compare it with the Exodus.

The main question being:

Is someone being set free?

THE UNSEEN

The Bible tells us that we have to believe in what we cannot see.

St. Paul writes:

We look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. (2 Cor. 4.18)

For we walk by faith, not by sight. (5.7)

We who are followers of Jesus “look for what cannot be seen”! We believe that there is more to life than meets the eye. As Paul says, “What cannot be seen is eternal.”

There is something eternal. Something unseen.

We do not walk by sight!

Which means we live our lives based on an invisible spiritual presence. It’s not that we deny what can be seen. What can be seen is real too. We affirm whatever science proves to us. We accept evidence that is provable. But we do not believe that that is all there is to life.

We believe reality is larger than what an atheist sees. We see more. We believe in The More.

BY FAITH

We walk by faith. That is, we live by trusting in the invisible presence of God. In the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse one, we find a of definition of faith:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (NRSV)

Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see. (Contemporary English Bible)

Pope Benedict XVI, in his Encyclical, Saved in Hope, says that the Greek term elenchos does not have the subjective meaning of ‘conviction,’ but the objective sense of ‘proof.’ So, he says, our faith—our trust in God in the present—actually gives us a kind of certain knowledge that God’s promises for the future are reliable.

“Faith draws the future into the present.”

So, living by faith creates proof of the invisible reality we call God.

A CONTEMPLATIVE SCIENTIST

Michelle Francl-Donnay is a professor of chemistry at Bryn Mawr College. She is also a contemplative. In a public lecture given last year she said this:

I believe in God. I also believe in evolution, quantum mechanics, particle physics, anthropogenic climate change, the Big Bang Theory, and perhaps even the Higgs boson. I am a scientist and a practicing Roman Catholic. I am a contemplative, who regularly extricates myself from the ‘interwebs’ and takes up temporary residence in silent monastic enclaves. I am a quantum mechanic who has used some of the most powerful computers in the world to dig into the interiors of molecules to see what makes them tick. I don't leave my faith at the door of the lab, nor do I suspend my critical faculties at the door of the church.

Science deals in the tangible, the physical. There is a point at which any further why’s or what’s take you from the physical to the metaphysical, from the realm of physics into philosophy and theology. I can’t prove the existence of God in the same way I can prove the existence of my notes on the page in front of me, but like much of science, direct observation is neither always possible nor necessary. I have never seen an electron and I cannot prove its existence in the same way I can prove the existence of my notes, but I am convinced of their existence, I can see their traces. No one has held a Higgs boson in their hand, but its tracks convince us it (might) exist. 

I believe in God; I have seen God’s tracks. Several years ago I spent 30 days in silence, very methodically looking for God’s traces in my life, and in the life of the world, doing the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. 

Not everything about even the physical universe is knowable, or at least quantifiable. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle says that knowing the exact position and exact velocity of an electron is not possible. Building a better measuring device will not help, it’s just not knowable. Psychologist William James, who wrote The Varieties of Religious Experience, takes a similar tack in the realm of the metaphysical. One marker of mystical experiences, which might include experiences of God, is that they are ineffable, indescribable.

(emphasis added)

***

The world is made up of that which we can see and that which we cannot see. The world is both material and spiritual. God’s footprints are all over the place. But we can’t actually see them. God is at work in our lives in invisible ways.

Scientists tell us that 90% of the universe is made up of dark matter, and we don’t know what it is. There is a lot of invisible stuff in our universe.

Adam Smith wrote in the 19th century about  the ‘invisible Hand’ that operates in economic affairs. We who base our lives on the Biblical Tradition speak about the invisible Hands and Feet that operate in spiritual affairs.

RESURRECTION AS AN EXODUS

In the New Testament the death of Jesus is reported as a historical and public event. No one denies it took place. His resurrection is also reported, but not as a historical, public event. No one saw the Resurrection. What they saw was an empty tomb. Which is kind of a negative evidence.

But the apostles report seeing Jesus in a transformed, science fiction kind of body—he materialized and disappeared at will. These sightings were not historical, public events. They were spiritual events, seen only by believers. They weren’t visible to the public eye. They were in another category altogether. But the apostles report that these appearances were real.

The resurrection of Jesus is the central invisible footprint of our Christian faith. Just as the Jews were set free from slavery in Egypt,

though God’s footprints were not visible,

so, the disciples of Jesus were set free from their fear of death by the resurrection of Jesus. There were no visible footprints leaving the empty tomb. The evidence of the resurrection was seen in the courageous and compassionate lives of the disciples.

GALATIANS 5 – FRUIT OF FREEDOM

In his letter to the Galatians Paul says, You have been set free! But he warns them: Don’t go back into Egypt; stay on the road of freedom. Then he gives them evidence of Christ’s redemptive work in their lives. It’s like an orchard, says Paul. The evidence (the footprints) of God in your lives is the fruit you will find in God’s orchard.

There is love,

and joy and peace;

and patience, kindness, gentleness,

generosity, loyalty, and self-control.

When you see these kinds of fruit growing within you and in your relationships with other people, you will know that God has set you free. These are the visible evidences of the invisible God at work in you. These are the fruits of freedom and salvation.

God has been walking through your soul. His footprints are invisible. But the evidence of your escape from the slavery of your egoism is the tasty, juicy fruit that grows people see on your branches.

Self-control,

loyalty,

generosity,

gentleness,

kindness,

patience,

peace,

joy,

love.

The taste of freedom in Christ, the evidence of salvation, the visible marks of the invisible God. The proof of the resurrection.

1920/15:10

Oct 4, 2020, Leeds, "The Longest Table"

 Sermon: “The Longest Table”

wayne mclaughlin

Leeds Presbyterian Church

World Communion Sunday

October 4, 2020 – (worship through Zoom)

_________________

Old Testament Reading    Exodus 20.1-4, 7-9, 12-20   NRSV

20 Then God spoke all these words:

2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 3 you shall have no other gods before[a] me.

4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth…

7 You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

8 Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work…

12 Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

13 You shall not murder. 

14 You shall not commit adultery.

15 You shall not steal.

16 You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

17 You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

18 When all the people witnessed the thunder and lightning, the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking, they were afraid[b] and trembled and stood at a distance, 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, or we will die.” 20 Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come only to test you and to put the fear of him upon you so that you do not sin.”

Epistle Reading: 1 Corinthians 12.7-13 CEV

7 The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others. 8 Some of us can speak with wisdom, while others can speak with knowledge, but these gifts come from the same Spirit. 9 To others the Spirit has given great faith or the power to heal the sick 10 or the power to work mighty miracles. Some of us are prophets, and some of us recognize when God’s Spirit is present. Others can speak different kinds of languages, and still others can tell what these languages mean. 11 But it is the Spirit who does all this and decides which gifts to give to each of us.

12 The body of Christ has many different parts, just as any other body does. 13 Some of us are Jews, and others are Gentiles. Some of us are slaves, and others are free. But God’s Spirit baptized each of us and made us part of the body of Christ. Now we each drink from that same Spirit. 

Gospel Reading    Matthew 16.13-18 CEV

13 When Jesus and his disciples were near the town of Caesarea Philippi, he asked them, “What do people say about the Son of Man?”

14 The disciples answered, “Some people say you are John the Baptist or maybe Elijah or Jeremiah or some other prophet.”

15 Then Jesus asked them, “But who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter spoke up, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus told him: Simon, son of Jonah, you are blessed! You didn’t discover this on your own. It was shown to you by my Father in heaven. 18 So I will call you Peter, which means “a rock.” On this rock I will build my church, and death itself will not have any power over it. 

SERMON TEXT:

Diversity

Today we sit down at the Table with Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, Church of Christ, Mennonites, Lutherans, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopalians, Holy Rollers, and Non-denominational Churches…

We will sit at Table with people who worship in brick churches, the little brown church in the dale, cathedrals, storefront churches, small churches, huge churches, new churches, ancient churches…

Today we will sit down with people who are white, brown, yellow, red, black, sun-tanned, freckled, wrinkled, and hairy…

We will sit with people who are tall, short, skinny, fat, muscular, flabby, toothless, bald, dyed hair, well-dressed, perfumed, smelly, big feet, small feet, educated, illiterate, rich, dirt poor, homeless, sick, grieving, depressed, joyous, alone, with big families, unemployed, tired, bored, athletic, introverted, extroverted, morning people, night owls, lovers of opera, lovers of Elvis, mountain climbers, couch potatoes…   

This morning we will sit down at the Lord’s Table with people from Ames, Iowa, Dayton, Ohio, Charlottesville, S.C., Seattle, Wash., Phoenix, Arizona, St. Paul, MN, Paris, IL, Paris, KY, Paris, Idaho, Arab, AL… 

People in Japan, Iceland, Venezuela, Russia, Scotland, Taiwan, New Zealand, China, Spain, Mongolia, India, Guatemala, Mexico, Germany, Nigeria,…

People who are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Socialists, and people who live under dictatorships…

We will sit at Table with women, men, and children of different sexual and gender orientations, people of different cultural backgrounds, people who are part of churches with different governing structures, different theologies, different traditions, different points of view, different tastes and preferences, different memories, and different prospects for the future…

1933

On the first Sunday in October each year there are probably more people partaking of the Lord’s Supper around the world than on any other Sunday. This is World Communion Sunday. An idea that was thought up in 1933 by the Reverend Hugh Thomson Kerr, pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. It was then adopted throughout the US Presbyterian Church in 1936 and subsequently spread to other denominations. 

Today we will sit at the Lord’s Table with people all over the world, our sisters and brothers in Christ. Some of these people are like us; many of them are different from us. If we could meet all of these people we would like many of them; some we would not like; some would not like us. In the Church of Jesus Christ we don’t get to pick and choose the people who are related to us in Christ. 

The important thing is that we are all one in Christ. We are part of one another. What unites us is not our politics or our language or our nationality, but our unity with Christ. We are all part of the Body of Christ through the free gift of the grace of God.

Longest Table

Of the 7.3 billion people on earth today, 2.4 billion, almost a third, profess to be Christian.

Today we sit with 2.4 billion people—our family in Christ.

Where are they all going to sit? you say. Good question. Easy answer. This table in our sanctuary is a long table. We only see a little of it. But the invisible part stretches around the globe—25,000 miles if it went around the equator. But it zigs and zags everywhere. It goes through every nation on earth. 

Each congregation has a little piece of the Table. It is the longest Table in the world.

Trans—

In the midst of a global pandemic, in the midst of racial tensions, in the midst of political turmoil, today we sit down at the Lord’s Table in peace, in unity, to commune with Christ, and with all of our sisters and brothers around the world. 

We will not only think about our connection, we will feel it in our hearts.

This trans-national, trans-racial family that we are part of overshadows all of our differences. 

Which raises an ethical question. In my first year of college I had to write a term paper for a religion class. We chose our own topics. I chose to write about the Christian attitude toward war. I went to the college library and found books on war and ethics and peacemaking. Being a young, radical college student, my thesis ended up stating that it is immoral for Christians to take part in any war; that Christians should be pacifists.

My rationale was this: Every nation on earth has believers in Christ. The Church resides in every nation. Therefore, when one nation goes to war against another nation, the ridiculous and immoral situation inevitably arises wherein Christ’s disciples of one nationality are out to kill Christ’s disciples of another nationality. What could be more inconsistent with the teachings of Jesus? 

It seemed to be a water-tight argument. How could a Christian fly a bomber over a nation where other Christians lived and with good conscience drop bombs on his fellow Christians? Could anything be more non-Christian, more anti-Christ?

I thought about that term paper as I was writing about World Communion Sunday. Because the moral logic of my argument still sits in my brain. Since that time I have accepted more fully the ambiguities of life. I have come to recognize that life is not simple, but complicated.

In many situations there is no simple, black-and-white answer to messy ethical and moral questions. I have learned to compromise.

Yet, I am still bothered by the fact that the Church is a trans-national entity. I still believe whole heartedly that to bow to any national flag is idolatry. To do so is to break the first commandment: You shall have no other gods besides me. I’m not talking about saluting the flag or saying the Allegiance to the Flag. There’s nothing wrong with that. I’m talking about bowing down to the flag as a way of bowing down to a nation as our absolute authority. Governments have relative authority; only God has absolute authority. To put a national flag above Christ is to deny our Lord and Savior.

To live as a Christian is to bow to no one or no thing except Christ the Lord. And if we bow only to the Lord, then the Church, as his Body, must also be of utmost importance. And our relationship with our sisters and brothers in Christ all over the world must be of utmost importance.

I’m sorry to bring this up on a Sunday which should be a feel-good Sunday. But this is where the Lord led me in this sermon. Listen carefully: Patriotism is one thing. Nationalism is another. I celebrate patriotism—the love of country. I love America. I am committed to the ideals of my country. But I must condemn nationalism—the idolization of country. Thou shalt not have any God but me. Perhaps the celebration of World Communion Sunday will at least help us think seriously about the reality of Christ dwelling in people in all nations on earth. 

Cells

Christ has established his Church. We see congregations diminishing, and congregations closing, buildings being sold. At different times and in different places parts of the Church dissolve and other parts are renewed. Like the cells in our bodies: some are always dying, while others are being created.

The world-wide Church will never die. The gates of hell will never prevail against it. It will change form. Old traditions will die, and new traditions will come to life. The form of worship may change. Terminology may change. Technology will spur new ways of doing things. The music for worship will evolve. But the Church itself, the Body of Christ, will never be defeated by the enemies of unbelief, immorality, apathy, or the powers of evil.

We are Christ’s Body. We are everywhere. Today we will be fed. Today we sit at the longest Table in the world.

                                                [text: 1242 words; time: 9:54]