The Dark Night of the Soul

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 19:28-40
at Batesville Prebyterian Church on Palm Sunday, April 1, 2007

Images of donkey carts and cars run through my mind when I recall looking out the window of a tour bus in Cairo, Egypt. I saw a man riding a small contraption with wheels being pulled along the street by a donkey. Next to him was what appeared to be a family riding in a late model Mercedes Benz. At one point the bus had to stop so a man herding sheep could cross the busy street. The place was bustling with people traveling by foot, donkey cart, and luxury car. Welcome to the post-modern Middle East. Long ago, in another bustling Middle Eastern city named Jerusalem, rode a rabbi named Jesus. His mode of transportation was a donkey. Jesus rode the donkey down the slopes of Mount Olive as hosts of his disciples shouted "Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"

Like Jesus on Palm Sunday, the people I saw riding donkey carts and Mercedes Benzes on the streets of Cairo in 1994 were people in motion. They were people who were going somewhere. They had not yet arrived at their destination. They were on the way there. On Palm Sunday, Jesus was on the way to the cross, the grave, and God's glorious resurrection. He had not yet arrived at the upper room where he will meet with his disciples on Thursday night for their last supper together. He had not yet arrived at the hill called Golgotha, place of the skull, on the outskirts of Jerusalem but he would get there by Friday. He had not yet arrived inside the enclosed stone tomb where his body would be laid for burial for crucifixion. He had not yet arrived in hell where he would completely identify with human suffering on a cosmic scale. He had not yet arrived at the moment of his resurrection. Jesus is on his way on that morning that we now call Palm Sunday when he rides a donkey into Jerusalem. Jesus was on his way through Holy Week and so are we.

I remember the flight from New York to Amman, Jordan. The President of our seminary, the Rev. Dr. T. Hartley Hall, was traveling with our party of 25 seminary students and 3 seminary professors. President Hall was a short man with a booming voice. When we got settled in the airplane I could tell he was an experienced traveler. After the flight was underway he put on a pair of ear plugs and covered his eyes with a blinder and reclined his seat. Within minutes he was laying with his arms spread out over his head, snoring loudly. President T. Hartley Hall knew how to travel. He was aware of the importance of timing in a long journey such as we had undertaken. He knew the time would come to stare in wonder upon the slab of rock where Jesus is claimed to have been resurrected in the Church of Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. But now was not that time. Now was the time to relax and rest. Timing is important in the spiritual journey as well. We have to learn when to speak and when to remain silent, when to move forward and when to lag behind, when to pray and when to remain silent in God's presence, which is, I believe, the highest form of prayer. I found reassurance in the sleep of President T. Hartley Hall. If he could be so relaxed as to fall asleep and snore his way through the night on that flight from New York City to Amman, Jordan, then maybe I should relax my grip on the magazine I was grasping and trust the Lord to keep us safe and sound on this flight and on this trip.

My fear on that trip was more than merely the fear of flying. It was deeper than that. Whether riding in the bus in the Middle East or flying on an airplane, I was not in control. I was a passenger and someone else was the driver. In a larger sense, that trip to the middle East was frightening to me because I was opening myself to the possibility of change in the way I viewed myself, the world, and my faith. So it was for Christ during holy week. he was not in control, he was not driving events.

Let's travel with Jesus through this Holy Week. Let's stand on the slope on Mount Olive and join his followers shouting: "Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord." Let's follow Jesus into Jerusalem and stand by his side even when the crowd turns against him. Spirit will be our mode of transportation this week. We will walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. We will be, as Jesus put it, "In the world but not of the world." Holy Week is a spiritual passage and we are on that journey now.

I remember another trip. I took this trip alone. It was a walk I made in Manhattan one Sunday in August when I was 25 years old. The walk began at the Statue of Liberty. There were many people there. A juggler entertained us as we waited in line to climb up into the Statue of Liberty. My turn finally came and I climbed the stairs, one by one, going up to the top of Lady Liberty. Finally, we got to the top and walked around the deck on Lady Liberty's crown. Manhattan shone like a diamond across Hudson Bay. The twin towers of the World Trade Center stood like two giant toothpicks holding together a juicy hor d'oeuvre called the Big Apple. Then I climbed down the Statue of Liberty and made walked up Broadway through Manhattan where I was staying with a friend near Central Park. As the sun came out that Sunday morning it was so hot and humid. The concrete sidewalk and nearly empty streets seemed to intensify the radiant rays of the sun. Even the tall skyscrapers seemed to be heaping heat down on my head. The soles of my feet were burning from the hot pavement. The streets were nearly deserted except for a stray car here or a taxi cab there. I walked alone in silence. Surrounded by intense heat. Such a walk may not have meant much to a young man from Brooklyn, but for a young man from a small town in Mississippi, to walk halfway across Manhattan Island alone on a Sunday morning on a nearly deserted street, it was a turning point in my life. Something clicked. I had achieved some unspoken goal. I was more self confident after that walk than before it. No one saw me do it but to me it was a growing experience.

Jesus walked alone on Good Friday. The Palm Sunday crowd of followers and well wishers were nowhere to be found. Jesus made his way down the Via Dolorosa, carrying a cross up to Golgotha, the hill of the skull. Imagine the heat he felt then. The heat of the accumulated sin, fear, guilt and dread of the human species throughout all history. Jesus must have been hot on that lonely walk. He must have felt the heat of hell summoning him down to where he would willingly go after his death on the cross. He descended into hell, we say in the Apostle's Creed. Jesus was no stranger to suffering. He walked alone when he had to do it. He walked from Pilate's quarters to Golgotha. He had to walk it by himself. As the great spiritual song says, "Nobody else could walk it for him. He had to walk it by himself."

There comes a time in our lives when we must walk alone. The crowds no longer support us. Our friends provide no consolation. We must walk alone through the valley of the shadow of death. Our family and friends may stand with us during the funeral service but there comes a time when everyone goes back home and we are left alone in the house without our loved one who has died.

I found an interesting book in the Great Hall of Calvary Episcopal Church in Memphis on my recent trip there with the Xyz Group. We arrived early enough to browse through the bookstore before the preaching service with Rabbi Micah Greenstein. As I browsed the books, I was drawn toward one called The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth . Author Gerald Mays, a psychiatrist and spiritual director, suggests we may experience unseen spiritual growth during those times in our lives when what we were formerly doing no longer bring us any satisfaction. The experience is called "dark night" not because it is evil but because God's presence is obscured. It is hard to see at midnight when the lights are all turned off. During times of spiritual obscurity, when the way before us in unclear, the Spirit may be maturing our faith. Certainly Jesus' solitary walk down the street in the Old City of Jerusalem named Via Dolorosa, the way of grief, was an experience framed by poor vision. He could not see well. His eyes were swollen from the beating he had taken at the hands of the Roman soldiers who mocked him. There was blood and sweat in his eyes from the crown of thorns on his head and the heat of the day that beat down upon him. Surely that solitary walk on Good Friday caused more growth in Christ's faith than the joyous journey on the donkey's back down Mount Olives into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We all long for the celebration of resurrection on Easter Sunday but are less enthralled with the ugly details of Good Friday. Yet good Friday is just as much a part of Holy Week as Palm Sunday and we grow more during the Good Fridays of our lives than we do on the Palm Sundays.

God is inviting us toward greater freedom and love during this holy week. Part of that growth may involve not knowing what God is doing in our lives. God works through obscurity. According to Mays, it is not so much that God does not want us to know what God is doing in our lives. Rather, God is able to lead us further when we do not know where we are going. During the dark night of the soul, during the times when we are unsure where God is or what God is doing in our lives, God may be purifying our soul and cleansing our spirit.

We all long for the clarity of the view of looking down on Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives but the more significant spiritual growth occurs when we walk the Via Dolorosa knowing that at the end of our path lies a cross and that we will be crucified upon it. Holy Week for Christ was an experience of the dark night of the soul. Hear him cry out on the cross in confusion, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?"

Let's take it one day at a time during this Holy Week and fully experience the joy of Palm Sunday and the horror of Good Friday. God suffers with us in the bad times and rejoices with us in the good times. We don't have to be always in control. We can relax in the knowledge that God is leading us onward even when we find no evidence of God's active presence in our lives. During the season in our lives when God's activity seems faint and shadowy, we may be experiencing the liberating power of the dark night of the soul. One thing we know for certain and we take hope in this fact. After every dark night there comes the dawn and after every Good Friday comes Easter Sunday.

Kierkegaard Revisited

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from John 12:1-8

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on March 25, 2007

The brilliant Danish philosopher and theologian, Soren Kierkegaard, was very close to his father, through whom he encountered profound theological questions at an early age. Kierkegaard's father believed that due to his own personal sins none of his children would ever live beyond the age of 33 years, the age at which Jesus died. This odd idea proved untrue when two of Kierkegaard's seven siblings lived beyond 33 years, but it set the tone of young Soren's sober interpretation of Biblical Christianity. As a young man, Soren fulfilled his father's wishes and attended seminary and became a theologian. In his writings, Kierkegaard proclaimed the shrill message that Christendom had "lost its way" and decried the shallowness of so-called "Christian living" he witnessed in Denmark in the 19th century, a European country whose church was controlled by the state.

I suppose if Kierkegaard had to pick one Bible character to illustrate the radical nature of Christian faith he may have chosen Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, as she is described in John 12:1-8. There we read that Jesus is visiting in the home of his recently resurrected friend, Lazarus. Lazarus's sisters, Mary and Martha, are there along with other guests and disciples of Jesus. Martha is doing the dishes as usual. Mary, ever the mystic, is pleased to be in the presence of Jesus when suddenly she shocks everyone. Mary kneels at Jesus feet and washes his dusty feet with her tears. She then wipes his feet, back and forth, using her hair as a washcloth. Next she takes out a pound of expensive perfume, worth a year's wages, and pours it all on Jesus' feet. The exquisite aroma staggers everyone present as it sucks the oxygen from the room.

Mary used her body, her tears, her hair and her hands, to minister to Jesus by anointing his feet like a servant. Mary's faith moved beyond her mind and into her body. Mary's relationship with Jesus was not a belief in an abstract concept. Mary had a personal relationship with Jesus, this person who was now in her house, which now reeked with the odor of a pound of expensive oil that cost an extravagant amount of money to buy and which she had poured onto the feet of a stunned by appreciative Jesus, her Lord.

Theologian Karl Barth said, "Do not fear the wrath of God. Do not fear the wrath of God. Fear the love of God. Fear the love of God that will strip away everything you ever had." Mary got stripped of everything she ever had. Jesus, like Kierkegaard, liked what he saw in Mary, a heart aflame with desire for God, a faith that left her stripped down by the love of God she found in the person of Jesus. Kierkegaard would approve of Mary's wild abandon, her leap of faith, her abandonment of herself in the presence of Jesus. Mary's wild act of devotion is a fine illustration of what Kierkegaard considers genuine Christian faith.

On the other hand, Judas Iscariot, was in the room and he was not amused by Mary's extravagance. Judas said, "Why wasn't this oil sold and the money given to the poor? It would have easily brought three hundred silver pieces." The texts tells us he said this not because he cared two cents about the poor but because he was a thief. He was in charge of their common funds, but also embezzled them.

Jesus said to Judas, "Let her alone. She's anticipating and honoring the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you. You don't always have me."

I imagine Kierkegaard would see in Judas a metaphor for the Christian church of his day and time in his native Denmark. This was a church that was state run and operated. It was a church that was more concerned with banking money than serving the poor. It was a church that was more a social club for the elite of society than a rescue mission for the down and out. Not so with Judas. To him, the business with Jesus was all about money. Judas pretends concern for the poor but it is an attempt to cover his pilfering. Judas was greedy, it was a fatal flaw in his character and let to his terrible act of treachery. Instead of kissing Jesus' feet in thanksgiving like Mary, Judas will kiss Jesus cheek so the Roman guards know which one to arrest—the ultimate act of betrayal. The spirit expressed by Judas is as small and mean as Mary's was expansive and giving.

To some people Christianity may seem to be a superficial social club but that is not the Christianity of Kierkegaard and and Mary. Kierkegaard wrote: "The thing is to find a truth which is true for me, to find the idea for which I can live and die." Mary discovered in Jesus the idea for which she could live and die. Mary found her truth not in a concept or a religious belief. Mary found her truth is the person of Jesus. He was truth enfleshed. He was truth incarnate. He was truth for which she could live and die.

A group of children, confined to a basement play area on a rainy day, decided to "play church." One child was the preacher, another the organist, a couple kids were ushers, and the rest served as the congregation. One little guy said, "What about Jesus? Shouldn't Jesus be in church?" The rest agreed and the child who made the point was made "Jesus."

"What do I do?" he asked. "How do I play Jesus?"

He was told by some of the older children that they would tie him up to one of the support posts in the basement, pretending that it was the Cross. Then the others would call him names, throw things at him, and be mean to him in other ways. The little boy thought about that a minute and then said. "I don't want to play Jesus; let's just play church." Kierkegaard challenges us to play Jesus instead of just playing church.

As the Lenten season draws to a close and we confront once again the Crucifixion of Jesus, we are reminded of the cross each of us is asked to take up and bear in the name of Christ. To leave out the Cross is just to play church. That is what Kierkegaard wants us to remember. That is why Jesus praised Mary. She was completely committed to him as her ultimate truth and she was preparing his body for burial. The cost of discipleship is very high. Let's not settle for what Kierkegaard called "cheap grace," the idea that God's grace is free. God's grace is not free. It cost Jesus a lot. When he saw Mary's perfume running down his feet perhaps Jesus envisioned his own blood that would soon be pouring from his feet. That's what happens when your feet get nailed to a cross.

Jesus showed us the cross is a requirement in our faith journey. It is not an option. It is a prerequisite. Christian faith carries a cost. For Mary, that cost was a year's wages worth of expensive oils poured out upon the sacred feet of Jesus in a moment of passionate devotion. For Kierkegaard, that cost was to set himself apart from the church of his day and to stand up as a prophet to them, and to us, to call us task for not counting the cost, for not taking up the cross of Christ, and for thinking that God's grace is cheap. God's grace is not cheap. Let's not pretend the Christian faith is easy. Go back and read the gospel story. Christ's death on the cross always precedes his resurrection on Easter Sunday. It's right there in the book's Kierkegaard wrote and it's right there in the gospel according to John.

During one period in my childhood, as perhaps in yours, my favorite game was hide and seek. I would close my eyes and count to ten while everyone ran to hide. Then I would open my eyes and have to go find them. When we become adults we still play that game with ourselves and others, and we even play it with Jesus. When we get frustrated looking for him and feel like we'll never find him, Jesus breaks the rules of hide and seek. He comes right out and let's us know where he is, calling out to us:

If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself.

But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me. (Matthew 10:39, MSG)

We too may find Jesus if we forget about ourselves and look to him as did Mary. When she found Jesus she found herself. When we find Jesus we will find ourselves as well. May we, like Mary, find the truth for which we can live and die. May we, like Mary, find ourselves, in the person of Jesus Christ, during this sacred season. This is the place. Now is the time.

Notice Mary on the floor at Jesus' feet. Perhaps we can manage to get down there ourselves one time during Holy Week. Surely our pride is not too great to manage that simple posture. Kierkegaard will applaud our appropriate pose: Kneeling at the feet of Jesus. If we get down there we may even help Mary pour the precious oils on Jesus feet. We may help her prepare his sacred body for death. It's the least we can do for him now. Look at Jesus standing there. He is so humble. His sheer integrity is overwhelming. I think he needs us now. Let's try to show some respect for him. For heaven's sake, let's try to show him some respect.

The Sin You Can't Keep a Lid On

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32
on March 18, 2007 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

This superb parable is actually three parables: the Parable of the Prodigal Son, the parable of The Elder Brother  and the parable of The Forgiving Father. We'll concentrate on the Elder Brother, which is far less popular and less widely known that the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

The elder brother could not stand the reception his brother received. After all, his younger had blown it. He had wasted his inheritance chasing prostitutes, embarrassed the family name, and hurt the family business. When his younger brother returned home, the elder brother resented the way his younger brother was received. Why did the elder brother take offense? It was the party that was so offensive. The older brother has a point, of course. Let the penitent come home. Both Judaism and Christianity provide for the return of sinners, but to bread and water, not to the fatted calf; to sackcloth, not a new robe; to ashes, not jewelry; to kneeling, not dancing; to tears, not merriment. The elder brother resented that party.

The history of resentment, says Leo Madow, professor at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, is the history of Humankind. If we really feel steamed about something (as we rightly express it), we can go from zero pressure to over 500 lbs. per square inch within a short time. The target can be a friend, a spouse, a child, a neighbor, a co-worker—even the person who promised to fix the vacuum cleaner. It can be a woman with two children, whose husband left her for another woman, and now she faces the full financial support of the family. She's resentful. Or a woman who resents her husband's boss and company so much it is destroying what could be one of the better homes around. Or a person with a chronic illness, now facing the prospect their condition will never get better. Or a person nearing retirement, watching their retirement go up in smoke because of bad investments by the fund trustees. Or a high school student who didn't make the team ... or cheerleader ... or first chair band ... or the leading role in the school play. Resentment. You can't keep a lid on it.

   Resentment pops up early in the Bible—with the two sons of Adam and Eve. Cain and Abel are a prototype of the two brothers in today's parable. Cain resented Abel because Abel received more favorable treatment. His offering was acceptable to the Lord and Cain's wasn't. Resentment was kindled (as the Bible puts it) in Cain, until it exploded and he summoned his brother out into a field and killed him. Murder is the ultimate destructive manifestation of resentment. This story is speculative, but  some time probably passed between the start of resentment to the eruption, what we call today "repression."  But repression doesn't solve; it only postpones. Resentment—you can't keep a lid on it.

     How does one rid oneself of resentment?  It is difficult, extremely difficult, but the answer is very much in this Parable of the Elder Brother. The meaning of the parable lesson is simply that God loves the world—the common, mixed-up, moral-immoral, world. Jesus' mission expresses that love. His joy is that sinners respond to his message and are brought back into fellowship with God.

Like the Elder Brother, proper, religious folk have a rightful claim to legitimacy. However, like him, they sometimes show an incapacity to forgive on the basis of mere repentance. Resentment arises when those who "follow the rules" perceive it as unfair that those who do not "follow the rules" suddenly are welcomed into the mainstream of "good" society without, seemingly, "paying their dues."  This perceived unfairness fosters resentment.

God's saving love goes out to sinner and self-righteous alike. If only the "elder brothers" of the world would forget themselves!  If only they were not so resentful, so selfish, so petty, and uncharitable, so lacking in humility, in compassion, and the desire to serve, they could rid themselves of resentment—and get a party like the prodigals get.

What about us—are we like the Elder Brother—are we resentful? Let's open our hands and our hearts—let go of our resentment and enjoy the celebration today. We have so much to be thankful for—two weeks ago we had a wonderful Kirkin' o' the Tartans service; our church is growing; the Session has started a new Helping Hand fund for those who come to our church seeking emergency assistance. We celebrate together what God is doing in our midst and we support one another in the midst of grief. The Holy Spirit is at work in our church. When our hearts are full of gratitude to God there is no room in our hearts for resentment. Let's let go of our resentment and join in God's great celebration.

God's Windows Vista

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon on Isaiah 55:1-9

at Batesville Presbyterian Church

on March 11, 2007

 

            The next time you buy a computer chances are it will come with an operating system called Windows Vista. This is the new computer operating system from Microsoft that looks better and is more secure than its predecessor. Each of us human beings also run an operating system. From birth, we are trained to use a dualistic operating system. Rev. Cynthia Bourgeault noticed this even in her 4 year old grandchild who learns to sing this song watching Sesame Street: "One of these things is not like the other, not like the other, not like the other." We are taught from early childhood to make distinctions and to notice differences. We define ourselves by the color of our skin, what model of vehicle we drive, the size, location and style of our house, and so on and on it goes.

            We constantly upgrade our things because that is what we are taught to do running the binary operating system that we use. If we buy a brand new high definition television this week we know as we carry it out of the store there will be one twice as good as this one for the same price or less twelve months from now. We buy it and before we get it installed it already dated. Having satisfied our desire for a new television, we move on to some other item of interest, perhaps a new cell phone. You get the picture. One day we wake up and we find our identity crowded out by all the stuff in our house, in our life, in our head.

            Into the den of our despair, into the wasteland of our devices, we hear an otherworldly voice:

 Why do you spend your money on junk food,

   your hard-earned cash on cotton candy?

Listen to me, listen well: Eat only the best,

   fill yourself with only the finest.

Pay attention, come close now,

   listen carefully to my life-giving, life-nourishing words.

   (Isa. 55:1-5, MSG)

 

            Scientists tell us that our taste buds change every seven years. Of course, they are changing each moment, as some cells die and others take their place. But this system of constant turnover runs its course in such a way that every seven years we find our mouths populated with a brand new set of taste buds. This is why turnip greens that tasted horrible when we were 5 years old may taste great when we are 55 years old. Our taste buds change and so can our operating system. The Apostle Paul challenged the church in Corinth, saying:

Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly—mere infants in Christ.

I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. (1 Cor. 3:1-2)

This biblical concept of maturing in the faith by graduating from drinking milk to eating solid food, is fleshed out by Dr. James W. Fowler III in his delineation of the stages of faith consciousness. Fowler's stages follow along the lines of the stage-theorists Jean Piaget , Erik Erickson & Lawrence Kohlberg. Based on his interviews with over 5000 people, Fowler has described seven distinct stages of faith development from the primal faith development of an infant to the universalizing faith reached by some adults. Fowler's stages of faith development help us understand that growth in our Christian faith is a process that is never complete. Today I am using the metaphor of upgrading our operating system as a metaphor for how it is possible to grow in Christian faith. We can upgrade the operating system of our computers and we can upgrade our spiritual operating system. God says clearly in our text from Isaiah:

 "I don't think the way you think.

   The way you work isn't the way I work."

 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts..

            (Isa 55:8-11, MSG)

            Let me describe how the world may look if we upgrade our spiritual operating system to God's Windows Vista. Look around you and you will see many different people in the pew in front of you and in the choir loft. Notice the difference hair colors and styles and even the fact that one person is a female and another one is a male. Now, imagine you are sitting on an airplane several thousand feet directly above the place where we are now. You look out the window of the airplane and look down, way down, at this sanctuary which is below you. You see from the airplane this sanctuary is but a speck in size. You can see no individual people inside the sanctuary but you can see for miles around the sanctuary in every direction. Your vision is exceedingly broadened as you look down at this sanctuary from several thousand feet up in the air. If your airplane were a space shuttle and carried you a thousand miles above this planet and you looked down you would not be able to distinguish this sanctuary and the people in it. All you would see if a round, blue orb called earth. This is how God sees us using God's non-dualistic operating system. God does not focus on the differences between us. We are but part of the whole. When we upgrade our spiritual operating system we notice new patterns that show us God's imprint in all aspects of creation. We notice a growth in the fruits of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience and kindness. These are the fruits of upgrading our spiritual operating system.

One of the best ways I've found to upgrade my operating system is through the spiritual practice of centering prayer. This ancient form of Christian prayer predates any schism or heresy and it works. I have found centering prayer to be the most effective way of upgrading my operating system from my own version of Windows, let's call it "Jon's Windows XP" to God's version of Windows Vista. I encourage you all to take advantage of the introduction to centering prayer workshop that will be held in the Recreation Room of our church on the Saturday after Easter. Come experience centering prayer and see how you can upgrade your life's operating system to God's Windows Vista. So mark your calendar for the Introduction to Centering Prayer Workshop. Come learn the secret that Isaiah was referring to when he described God's Windows Vista using God's own voice: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

God's Windows Vista is a profound operating system. Like a person looking out the window of airplane in flight, God's Windows Vista gives us a broader view of the world . God's Windows Vista does not destroy our current operating system. We can upgrade our operating system to God's Windows Vista. Centering prayer helps us do that. We can upgrade our home computers to Windows Vista and we can upgrade our mental, emotional and spiritual operating systems to God's Windows Vista. Isaiah challenges us to upgrade our operating system to God's Windows Vista. Centering prayer is an installation program that helps us upgrade our mental, emotional and spiritual operating system. Think about upgrading your operating system. This is not for everyone. It will require some time and some effort. It takes some time to learn how to run a new operating system but the result is worth the effort.

Jesus in the Wilderness

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 4:1-13

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on the

First Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2007

            The wilderness is not somewhere we want to be. The very word, wilderness, conjures us negative synonyms such as waste, badlands, barren, desert, wasteland, wild, wild land, wildness. The wilderness is not a nice place and it is not a safe place. In the scripture, the wilderness is a place of chaos haunted by the devil. The wilderness is not a place that ordinarily comes to mind when we think of places the Holy Spirit may lead us. Yet, we see in our text today that is was the Spirit that led Jesus into the wilderness.

            And sure enough, right off the bat, Jesus encounters the devil in the wilderness and for forty days the devil tempts Jesus in the wilderness. The devil came at Jesus through his appetites which is the same way he comes after us. Jesus was fasting in the wilderness and when his fast was over he was famished. The devil approaches Jesus and gently puts an innocent thought into his head. The devil merely suggests that if Jesus is really the Son of God he could command a stone to become a loaf of bread. Just an idea. Something to think about. It sounds like a great idea to someone who hasn't eaten in forty days.

            Yet, even in his starving state, Jesus controls his appetite, for he knows his mission as Son of God is not to serve himself but serve others. Jesus knows he is on the earth not to make bread for his physical body to eat but to give his physical body as bread for the world to eat. Jesus first temptation is the devil's attempt to twist his mission from being bread to making bread. Jesus answers the devil, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'" Later, on Maundy Thursday, Jesus will serve bread to his disciples and tell them, "This is my body, broken for you." Score one for Jesus.

            But of course the devil is not finished. He's not even discouraged. He is simply relentless and continues the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness by taking him up and showing him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world, saying: "They're yours in all their splendor to serve your pleasure. I'm in charge of them all and can turn them over to whomever I wish. Worship me and they're yours, the whole works." Jesus does not question the devil's authority over the world for Jesus knows in his heart he will one day break the devil's stranglehold over planet earth. And that, Jesus knows, is his mission. Again, he is not here to be served but to pour himself out in service to others. So Jesus refuses the devil's offer, again backing his refusal with a quote from the Old Testament book of Deuteronomy: "Worship the Lord your God and only the Lord your God. Serve him with absolute single-heartedness." (Luke 4:8, MSG) Jesus now has the momentum against the devil. He's resisted his temptations twice in a row. But the devil comes back again as if nothing has happened.

             For the third test the Devil took him to Jerusalem and put him on top of the Temple. He said, "If you are God's Son, jump. It's written, isn't it, that 'he has placed you in the care of angels to protect you; they will catch you; you won't so much as stub your toe on a stone'?" (Luke 4:9-11, MSG) Jesus, full of insight, realizes the problem with this suggestion, for by acting on the devil's suggestion Jesus would confront God with the indignity of being put to a test by his own beloved Son. Jesus rebukes the devil, saying, "Yes, and scripture also says, 'Don't you dare tempt the Lord your God.'" (Luke 4:12, MSG)

             That completed the testing in the wildnerness. The Devil retreated temporarily, lying in wait for another opportunity. That opportunity comes later in the form of Judas Iscariot, whom the devil uses to coordinate the crucifixion of Jesus. But there in the Garden of Gethsemane, as he faces the cross, Jesus bests the devil again by resisting the temptation to take the easy way out. Jesus faces the horror of the cross, stares it down, and submits to God's will, knowing that in doing so he will face not only shame and the death of his body but the even more excruciating pain of separation from God when he descends into hell on behalf of us and all humanity.

            Thus ends the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus passes the test. He keeps the faith. He resists temptation. He thwarts the devil. Jesus has been in the wilderness. Jesus has faced temptation. So when we find ourselves retreating into the wilderness of addiction, sex, or violence, we can know that we are not there in that hellish place alone. For Jesus Christ our Lord has been in that wilderness before. He has faced whatever it is we face. And the best good news of today on this First Sunday of Lent is this: Jesus is with us in the wildnerness. We are not alone.

            Perhaps you've heard this anonymous story but it bears repeating as we begin our Lenten Journey.

 
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.

Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.

In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.

Sometimes there were two sets of footprints.

Other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life

When I was suffering from anguish, sorrow, or defeat,

I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord, "You promised me, Lord,

That if I followed you, you would walk with me always.

But I noticed that during the most trying periods of my life

There have only been one set of prints in the sand.

Why, When I have needed you most, you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,

"The times when you have seen only one set of footprints

Is when I carried you."

           

            As the great spiritual song says, "Jesus walked this lonesome valley. He had to walk it by himself. Oh, nobody else, could walk it for him. He had to walk it by himself." Jesus had to walk it by himself so that we will never walk alone. Jesus passed his test in the wilderness so he can help us with ours. Jesus knows how to find us in the wilderness because he's been there himself. Jesus walks with us through the wilderness experiences of our lives.

Love Bears the Unbearable

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from 1 Corinthians 13
at Batesville Presbyterian Church on February 18, 2007

            Last week I was surprised to see Kendrick Sledge being interviewed on CNN. I know Kendrick from my time in seminary in Richmond, Virginia, when she was a child and her father, James Sledge, was my best friend in serminary. Kendrick is now a Sophomore at Boston University and there she was on CNN speaking about her experience in an abusive relationship when she was 14 years old and dating a 19 year old boy. She is educating young women on the dangers of abusive relationships and how to get out of them. Kendrick reminds us when we say "love bears the unbearable" we do not intend to encourage women to remain in abusive relationships with men.
            On the other hand, there is much to be said for Saint Augustine's paraphrase of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. Paul writes "love endures all things" and Augustine paraphrases him "love bears the unbearable."   Of course this phrase applies to God's love as demonstrated most clearly in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. But my contention is that even us human beings, and especially those of us who call ourselves Christians, can and do emulate Christ in this respect. In our feeble ways, we too are learning and practicing that great truth: "Love bears the unbearable."
            Let's consider a few movies and see what they say about how love bears the unbearable.
            First, let's consider Clint Eastwood's movie, Million Dollar Baby. Here Clint Eastwood plays the role of Frankie Dunn who has trained many a fine fighter in his career as a boxing coach. The most important lesson he conveys to all his protégés is the importance of protecting yourself in the ring. On the personal side, Frankie suffers from a broken relationship with his daughter. Then a young lady by the name of Maggie Fitzgerald walks into his gym and wants him to take her on and teach her to box. Maggie comes from the wrong side of the tracks and has it in her mind that boxing will be her ticket out of the cycle of poverty in which she and her dysfunctional family dwell. Frankie finally agrees to take her on and teaches her the importance of protecting herself in the ring. Maggie follows Frankie's direction and gets on a winning streak that eventually takes her across Europe until one night when she meets a dirty fighter and forgets that most important lesson of all. She forgets to protect herself in the ring. The championship fight ends with Maggie being paralyzed from the neck down. As she gets progressively worse in the hospital, having one leg amputated and then another, she begs Frankie to restore her dignity by helping her to die. Frankie finally grants her wish and helps Maggie die in what he and she considers to be an act of unselfish love. Regardless of our stance on the issue of euthanasia, we have all had some experience with these questions as we struggle with ethical questions in regards to our loved ones. Having a living will is one thing but honoring it on behalf of our parents or spouse teaches us the lesson that love bears the unbearable. Our family relationships teach us that love bears the unbearable.  
            This is a lesson we learn also in our experiences in the church family to which we belong. Living and loving in the context of a church family is a theme explored by a movie called Babette's Feast. Babette is a famous chef in Napoleon's Paris when she has to flee the country due to being caught on the wrong side of a political debate. She flees to Denmark where she takes up residence with a couple of older widow women. These women run a small church of about 20 members that has been continually declining since their father, who had been pastor of the church, died. Babette gets involved with the little church and finds it to be full of bickering, dissension and unrest. One day Babette gets notice she has won the lottery back in France. Shortly thereafter she receives a check worth millions of dollars. She uses the money to throw an elaborate feast and cook up the finest food available on the planet. The conflicted congregation slowly melts into the moment and over the course of Babette's exquisite seven course meal a healing takes place between the members of the congregation. After the feast, the congregation assumes she will be leaving them since she is now rich. Babette says, "What? Leaving? Rich? I don't have any money. I blew it all on that feast! I threw it away for a feast for you all. I'm not going anywhere." Babette is a Christ figure in this movie because, like Christ, Babette does not protect herself in the ring of life. Babette exposes her full heart to a small, dysfunctional, church family. And she gives away a fortune to them expecting nothing in return and even after that she remains with them in solidarity, in love. Here is an image of God's love which is the kind of love that bears the unbearable, brooks even unlovely, unlikable, uninteresting people. The kind of love Babette displays is the kind of extravagant love Jesus practiced. It is a love that goes beyond expectations -- beyond the call of duty -- it is an all encompassing love.
            As a seminary student I visited the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Jerusalem, and I was stunned by one exhibit in particular. It was a large room with a tall ceiling and a glass wall. Behind the glass wall were tiny, wrinkled leather, children's shoes. A whole big room full of antiquated children's shoes. They were the shoes of children killed in Nazi concentration camps such as Ravensbruck. It was in Ravensbruck, that place so tainted by evil, that someone found a poem by an anonymous author.  A brief poem that describes how this voluntary self-empting -- agape, caritas -- can transform even the greatest human evil into something of beauty. Here is the poem:

O Lord,
remember not only the men and women of good will
but also those of ill will.

But do not remember all the suffering they inflicted on us
remember the fruits we have bought thanks to this suffering
our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our
courage, our generosity,
the greatness of heart which has grown
out of all this.

And when they come to judgment
let all this fruit which we have born
be their forgiveness.

             What a testament to the human spirit. What a testament to a love that bears all things. Here we see that by continuing to pour oneself out in self-giving love even the darkest evil can be transformed into an act of incredible love.
            I close with the words that were found on a piece of paper in the pocket of a Confederate soldier over a hundred years ago, and though they have been commandeered by politicians and sentimentalists in recent years, I believe that they contain great wisdom:

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve;
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do grater things;
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches, that I might be happy;
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have praise;
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life;
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for –
But everything that I had hoped for."

             What an amazing thing: the things we do not know. One thing we do know. Love bears the unbearable. And with God's help, so shall we. So shall we.

Go Deep

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 5:1-11
at Batesville Presbyterian Church on February 4, 2007

 

            Lake Gennesaret is a beautiful setting for the story today. The lake has a holy aura about it left over from the time when Jesus walked the shores and taught the people sitting in a boat out a little ways on the water. Once when he was standing on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, the crowd was pushing in on him to better hear the Word of God. He noticed two boats tied up. The fishermen had just left them and were out scrubbing their nets. He climbed into Simon's boat and asked him to put out a little from the shore. Sitting there, using the boat for a pulpit, he taught the crowd.

            While Jesus is teaching from the boat, some fishermen are cleaning their nets on the shore, listening to Jesus teach as they work. These professional fishermen are in the process of cleaning their nets because they have finished working for the night. They have fished all night and caught nothing. As a casual fisherman I've had the experience fishing all day and not catching anything. It is not a pleasant experience. How much worse these professional fishermen must have felt for they have fished all night and caught nothing. They have lost time. They have lost money. They are tired and probably a bit miffed as they go through the laborious task of cleaning their nets.

            When he finished teaching, he said to Simon, "Push out into deep water and let your nets out for a catch." Jesus, a carpenter by trade, is telling them to take the nets they have just cleaned and go back out in the water and cast their nets out into the deep water and they will catch some fish. This means the nets will get dirty again, full of weeds or whatever dwells in the deep water in Lake Gennesaret. It must have seemed to the fishermen like an irrational suggestion.

            Simon says, "Master, we've been fishing hard all night and haven't caught even a minnow. But if you say so, I'll let out the nets."

            Here we see a repeating pattern in the Biblical narrative. God's messenger makes a seemingly irrational suggestion and when people respond unbelievably good things happen. For instance, take Naaman the Syrian who suffered from leprosy. Jesus referred to Naaman in his first sermon and so gave a hint as to the pattern of his coming ministry. Naaman was a Syrian general. That is three strikes against him. First, he is a person of a different religion. Second, he is a citizen of an enemy nation. Third, he is a general in an enemy army. As we like to say in baseball and elsewhere, three strikes and you're out. Yet, the message of both the Old and the New Testament is that God is continually breaking that rule. Far from being out, God considered Naaman to be in, and so when Naaman came to the prophet Elisha, God spoke through Elisha to give Naaman a seemingly irrational suggestion. If you want to be cured of you leprosy, go wash yourself seven times in the River Jordan. Naaman thought this was a ridiculous suggestion and refused to consider it until his servants talked him intro trying what the prophet suggested. The result is that Naaman was cured. This man with three strikes against was cured while others were not. He was cured because he acted on a seemingly unreasonable suggestion from God. It's as if Jesus, in his first sermon, was giving a clue about his upcoming ministry and saying, "Hide and watch. See what happens to the people who respond to my seemingly illogical suggestions."

            This is certainly the case in our story this morning. Jesus has just told some fishermen who had just fished all night and caught nothing to take their clean nets back into the middle of Lake Gennesaret and throw them in the deep water and they'll catch some fish. This is not a rational suggestion. But Simon has already experienced the power of Jesus. He was there when Jesus healed his mother-in-law from a fever. He has seen Jesus cure mentally and emotionally distressed people in Capernaum.

            So Simon acts on Jesus' seemingly ridiculous suggestion. He gets his fishing crew together. They get the boats back out in the middle of the lake. They let out the nets into the deep water. When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. These nets that had caught nothing after fishing all night. These nets that had just been cleaned. These nets were now so full of fish they were bursting at the seams. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. The two boats were simply swamped with fish.

            But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And at this tender moment when Simon's heart was fully open to the mysteriously powerful presence of God in this man, Jesus said to Simon, "Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people." When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

            Let the record show that what Jesus said to Simon about fishing for people came to pass. For we read in the Acts of the Apostles that on the day of Pentecost, Simon Peter preached to a crowd of people in Jerusalem. That day about three thousand took him at his word, were baptized and were signed up. They committed themselves to the teaching of the apostles, the life together, the common meal, and the prayers. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

            All of this followed from such a fragile beginning. Jesus made a seemingly irrational suggestion to Simon and his fishing partners. They did what Jesus suggested and the rest is history. Obedience to God's seemingly unreasonable suggestions is the way into the deep waters of the miraculous power of God. Try it in your own life this week and see what happens. When the Spirit nudges you in a certain direction, respond and go there, act, and do that. When Jesus says to you, "Go deep," don't question why or how, just do it.

Hometown Hill

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 4:21-30

on January 28, 2007 at Batesville Presbyterian Church

 

            Last week we learned a little about Jesus first sermon. We learned Jesus delivered this sermon shortly after his baptism and subsequent temptation by the devil in the desert. We learned he went back to his hometown to teach in his home synagogue on the sabbath. He took the scroll and read from the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." (Luke 4:18) We heard how Jesus then sat down and began teaching, saying, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your midst." But last week we did not hear the amazing story of what happened next.

            For as his friends and family listened to Jesus' first sermon in his hometown synagogue, at first the people were full of pride in their hometown boy, this Jesus, son of Joseph the carpentar, son of our own Mary, who is an up and coming prophet in the region. But as they listened to Jesus explain his interpretation of the text they became alarmed. For Jesus was saying what none of them wanted to hear. Jesus was saying something to the effect that Israeli's are  not God's only special people. God loves Syrians too and sometimes Syrians demonstrate more faith in God than Israelis do. Jesus reminded his hometown congregation about how the prophet Elijah did not feed a single Israeli widow during that terrible famine that lasted three and a half years but instead Elijah helped a widow from Iraq.

            I suppose if Jesus had chosen a hymn for the congregation to sing after his first sermon it would have been "God bless the people of every nation" instead of "God bless our home and nation." The hometown congregation was enraged.  They cried: "How dare he sell us short?" They wondered where his loyalties lay, certainly not, they thought, with us. They suddenly did not recognize him anymore. He was not one of them. Even though he had grown up there and played with their kids and worked in their houses he was not one of them.

            Jesus had been away from the community for 40 days and nights and he was no longer one of them. He had spent time in the desert fighting with the devil and he wasn't the same person when he came home. He knew more than he knew before. He knew things about himself and about his family and about everyone he saw. His horizon had expanded and broadened. He clearly saw that God's love and God's grace and God's plan included more than just this, it also included Syrians such as Naaman the Syrian, who received healing grace from God.

            Jesus had crossed a line. The quiet congregation suddenly became a raging mob. They grabbed Jesus and dragged him to the top of the highest hill in town. They were going to throw him off the cliff and kill him but Jesus slipped away. He wasn't that easy to catch and hold onto. Never was. Never will be. Jesus walked away from the hometown crowd and continued his ministry among all God's children. He lasted about three years. Talking this way. Teaching this teaching about God's love. He lasted about three years until he was finally cornered in the Garden of Gethsemane and this time it was the appointed time and Jesus submitted to God's will and he was taken to the hill called Golgotha and there he was crucified, dead and buried.

            We know that is not end of the story. For on the third day God raised him from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Jesus, you see, was more than his hometown folks could grasp. He is more than we can grasp, too. Perhaps it is better to pray that we may instead be grasped by him. For even when Jesus may not be in our immediate plans, rest assured we are always in his. God never gives up on us. Let's not give us on God. Let's not give up on ourselves.             

            There is hope for us as well. Although God does not love us exclusively, God does love us decicively and if we can ever submit to that or somehow get ourselves attuned to it, we'll learn to replace our resentment with something far sweeter and stronger and more satisfying than the bitter taste of ire. That would be the love of God that includes each one of us along with every person, plant, rock and tree on this and every planet. Let's open ourselves to God's Spirit within. Then we may learn the secret that Jesus learned in the desert. The secret that his hometown never learned. We, too, may discover the secret of the incredibly inclusive and expansive love of God.

Jesus' First Sermon

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 4:14-21

At Batesville Presbyterian Church on January 21, 2007

 

            This week I received an appeal for help from one of our Elders in the form of an email addressed to me and others. Here is an excerpt from that email.

 

Dear friends,

 

This is the story of a grandmother who is raising her three grandchildren. The parents of these children sadly, are both drug addicts and not able to contribute to the welfare of these children.

 

The grandmother has asked for our help and prayers, too. Two of the children are having medical problems due to their unfortunate birth situation. One of the children was so severely malnourished at the time his grandmother took him into her care that he was terribly underweight for his age.

 

Before Christmas, the family's house burned down. They lost everything and had no insurance. Things seem to keep snowballing and they are falling deeper into poverty. Currently, they're living in a one room building out on Nash Road. They have gotten a trailer, but can't move into it because they don't have the money to pay for the $2,200 septic tank and installation. Last night the grandmother called me about her situation. She is only receiving $175 a month for the care of all three children, not to mention the fact that they have lost everything that they own. They have become absolutely destitute and she is desperate for help.

 

They are on food stamps, but this is not enough. As we can only imagine, they need everything. They need appliances - washer, dryer, gas stove, and refrigerator. Also needed are sheets, blankets, and towels.

 

The family needs clothes, too. They all especially need boots to get through the muddy yard. The grandfather wears a men's size 11, the grandmother wears a ladies' size 8, the third grade girl wears a girl's size 3, and the two little brothers wear boy's sizes 10 and 11 in boots.

 

The grandmother called me last night on a prepaid cell phone. They have no house phone, and her own cell phone has been cut off and she owes $300 to get it reconnected.

 

If you or your church could donate to this very needy cause, please let me know - no amount is too small to give. I'm going out to her house either this afternoon or tomorrow to take her some things and talk further with her. To help them, you can give a check to our church labeled "fire victims" or you can write one to the grandmother - Betty Henry - and give it to me.

 

Thanks so much, Molly

 

            That email struck me because of the desperate situation of the family it described. It reminded me of the theme of Jesus' first sermon. His first sermon came shortly after he returned from a period of temptation in the desert. The devil had tempted Jesus to act as a breadmaker, a materialist, a producer of consumer goods. Jesus said no. The devil then tempted Jesus to take upon himself a mantle of glory, authority, and political power. Jesus said no to the devil. The devil finally tempted Jesus to manifest his spiritual power, demonstrate his religious authority, control unseen powers, manipulate angels. Jesus said no to the devil and told him to get lost and the devil left him alone.

            Jesus then made the rounds teaching in the synagogues of Galilee until he returned to Nazareth. There we find him in his childhood synagogue, on the Sabbath day. He stands before his hometown congregation and opens the sacred scroll to the prophet Isaiah. He reads the text. He rolls up the scroll and sits down, as was the custom, to teach the text. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."

            Here is the sermon text of Jesus' first sermon in his hometown. From the prophet Isaiah:

 

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19)

           

            Jesus says God has sent him to bring good news to the poor. We should not be surprised that ministering to the poor was the first item on his agenda. After all, his mother, Mary, in her magnificat, her song of elation, praises God for, as she puts it:

 

"He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty."

(Luke 1:52-53)

 

            I suppose we could say Jesus takes after his mother in his compassion for the poor. That is a message we don't hear much from pulpits across America today and I think that is a shame. For today, perhaps more than ever, we need to hear about God's concern for the poor. Yes, it is true, as some are quick to remind us, Jesus did say, "The poor you have always with you," at one point in the gospels. But it equally true that he said we will be judged by God according to the simple criterion of whether we visit prisoners, clothe the naked and feed the hungry. (cf. Matt. 25) If we truly believed what Jesus said, that God will judge us according to whether we feed the hungry, then there would be a waiting line of Christians wanting to work at the Food Pantry. Instead, we have trouble finding volunteers for the Food Pantry.

            Contemporary theologian Jurgen Moltmann challenges the church to return to the model of servant leadership portrayed in the Bible in the book of Acts. To make ourselves known as the people who care and demonstrate our charity by our actions, by what we do and how we do it. In some measure, we are doing that. For instance, the appeal I read to you earlier has had some results. Someone responded and had their business donate a septic tank to this desperate family. They still need many things but people have responded to the request. One of the little known facts about Mississippians is that we respond to specific requests for help. Percentage wise, we give more to charity than most Americans. In that respect, we live what Jesus preached.

            Lord, open our eyes so we may notice the desperate people that live all around us. Open our ears that we may hear their cries for help. Help us, like Jesus, to bring good news to the poor. Isaiah said: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor." Jesus said: "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." We say, Lord, we also will bring good news to the poor -- not because we want to -- not because it convenient -- not because it is politically correct -- but because Jesus brought good news to the poor, and because we are followers of Jesus, and because he commands us to do it. We will do it. We will respond to Jesus first sermon. We will continue to feed the hungry through the food pantry. We will continue to bring good news to the poor. That is who we are. That is what we do.

Fearless Followers

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Isaiah 43:1-7

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on January 7, 2007

 

            Today some of our deacons and elders are making a passage. They are crossing over into a position of leadership in the church. It would be difficult for me to overemphasize the importance of the role of church officers within our Presbyterian form of government. And it would be hard to overstate the responsibility that these new officers will take upon them for the health and life of the congregation. Deacons and elders in this congregation are simply essential for the survival of the church. The pastor and preacher plays a large role in the life of a congregation and the deacons and the elders play an equally significant role.

            Thanks be to God, no one person is responsible for everything in Christ's church, for as the Apostle Paul reminds us, we are all members of the body of Christ and each of us has a role to play. If the hand says to leg, "You are not necessary," then the hand does not understand how the body works. If the eye says to the nose, "You don't do much around here," then the eye does not understand how the body works. And if anyone should say to the head, "Let me make that decision," then that person does not understand that Christ is the head of the church.

            These deacons and elders are here today to be ordained and installed because God chose them for this responsibility. As the prophet Isaiah says in our text today: "Thus says the LORD, he who created you ..., he who formed you ...: 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.'" We are here today because God has redeemed us and called us by name. As Paul says, "Whether we live or whether we die; we belong to the Lord."

            The story is told of a young fool, a mentally retarded man, went to a Buddist monastery to be enlightened. Some of the young monks told him to go sit in the corner for awhile and then they threw a stone and hit him and said to him, "You've now reached level one of enlightenment." Then they told him to go sit in the other corner and they threw a stone and hit him and said, "You've now reached level two." Then they told him to go sit in the other corner and he did and they threw a stone and hit him and said, "You've now reached level three." Then they told him to go sit in the final corner and he did and they threw a stone and hit him and said, "You've now reached level four." The young monks looked at one another and said and said, "This fool believes us." And the fool looked at the young monks and bowed and said, "Thank you, I'm now enlightened." And he was! The fool's faith had made him enlightened. The only ailment ailing us today is lack of faith. Our lack of faith is expressed as fear. Our fear is what Isaiah addresses in our text today.

            God's message to each of us today is this: "Do not fear." The Lord says: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you." We are not in this alone. And our soon to be ordained and installed elders and deacons are not in this alone, either; for God will be with them. When troubles arise in their lives -- sickness, death, uncertainty, insecurity -- God will be with them. When conflicts arise in the church, the Lord will be with them. The great news about taking on the role of leadership in the church is that we have higher powers who are working with and for us in the process of leading the church. God the Father establishes the church, Christ our Lord serves as head of the church, and the Holy Spirit guides and nurtures the church. Thank God we are not in this alone.

            Those who will be ordained as leaders of this congregation are also being ordained as leaders in the church universal, which is the church of all times and places. We are branches on the vine of mother church. Presbyterians have always displayed humility and openness to Christians of other brands and stripes. We know our history. We know that for the first thousand years of the church's history there was but one church and that is the common root to which all Christians belong. We know that God speaks to people in various ways at different times in history. That is why we recognize the need to continually update our Book of Confessions. The Presbyterian Church (USA) is a denomination of some 2 million people across this great United States of America. We are a people of some political and theological diversity. We are a people of some humility. We are part of the larger church, the body of Christ, called the church universal. 

            The Lord says, "Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give .. for you, ... for your life." The calling to serve is a personal calling to each person from God. God's call flows forth from God's love. This call is not a call to be held in greater honor than others. Let us remember today Jesus' saying that when we are invited to a sit-down dinner we should not take the seat of highest honor but the seat of lowest honor. Not because we have low self esteem but because we have high God esteem. We know without God we never would have been invited to dinner in the first place. We are here by invitation and the invitation has come to us from God.

            God's word to each of us this morning is this: "Do not fear." This is the message God gave to the exiles from Israel. Do be afraid! That is the message the angel gave to Mary when he came to tell her she had been chosen to bear the Messiah. Do not fear! That is the message the angels gave the shepherds when they appeared to them proclaiming the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem. Do not be afraid. So said the angel in the empty tomb to Mary and the women when they came looking for Jesus' body after his crucifixion. Do not be afraid. That is God's message to each of us today. Do not fear! You elders and deacons whom God has called to serve as church officers and leaders.

            And we respond with the Psalmist, who says in Psalm 23:

 

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

 

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever. (vs 4-6, KJV)

 

            Let's be fearless followers of Christ. God has called us by name. God has created us for God's glory. God has formed us and made us. We are intimately known and loved by God. We are safer than we have ever dared believe. We are safe in the ultimate sense. We are safe in the eternal sense. And we are safe in the present tense. We are like a mountain that cannot be moved. "If God be for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31) We have reason to be fearless and fearless we shall be.

Little Boy Jesus

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 2:40-52

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on December 31, 2006

 

            Last Sunday we celebrated the birth of Jesus with the full retinue of children dressed as angels, cows and camels. We marked the birth of Jesus with the Advent Candles and sang Christmas carols. Today, on the First Sunday after Christmas, on this last day of 2006, let's look beyond the birth of Jesus and consider the life of little boy Jesus as we consider what became of the baby in the manger.

            The Bible has little to say about little boy Jesus. Yet we do have two stories that shed some light on Jesus' childhood and adolescence. The first story is from the gospel according to Matthew (2:1-12), where we learn that after Jesus was born in Bethlehem, King Herod found some wise men from the East, astrologers, scurrying around Jerusalem asking about the child who had been born king of the Jews, for they had seen his star rising in the East, and they had come to pay him homage. Of course this news sent King Herod into a panic and he immediately called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem with instructions to find this child and let him know when they found him so that he too, could pay him homage. The wise men follow the star and find the holy family but after being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

            After they left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him to take the child and his mother to Egypt for King Herod would search for the child to destroy him. Joseph and the holy family escape into Egypt. When Herod learns he has been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated and sent and killed all the children in a around Bethlehem who were two years old or under. (Mt. 2:16-18) Today, in Cairo, Egypt, there are Coptic Christians who trace their religious ancestry all the way back to the time when their family embraced the holy family during little boy Jesus' exile in Egypt.

            Beyond the fact that little boy Jesus spent his early childhood in Egypt, the Bible has little to tell us except for the remarkable story present in today's gospel reading (Luke 2:40-52) This story, as told in the Gospel according to Luke, occurred when Jesus was twelve years old. By now the holy family has returned to the land of Israel and reside in the town of Nazareth. The story takes place on the family's annual journey to Jerusalem during the Passover celebration. These were occasions of feasting and enjoyment and men brought their families. But even as a child Jesus' religious consciousness is above the ordinary level of consciousness. For even at the tender age of twelve years, his commitment to God supersedes his obligation to his immediate family.

            That is to say, if one were to ask the twelve year old Jesus, "Who's your daddy?" His answer would be: "God." Even as an adult Jesus calls God, "Abba" which in our idiom may be translated as "Daddy." Already, as a child, Jesus knows he has a divine mission for human salvation. Thus, he explains to his parents what he was doing in the temple, saying: "I must be in my Father's house." Little boy Jesus is in the temple teaching because he must be about his Father's business, even if this appears to impair his relationship with his parents, Mary and Joseph. This tendency toward doing the will of God regardless of the consequences will follow Jesus like a shadow until he sweats drops of blood in extreme prayer the Garden of Gethsemane as he faces the cross. There, as an adult, even as here, as a child, Jesus will say yes to God's will, regardless of the consequences.

            This glimpse into the boyhood of Jesus sets the tone for what is to come. As the years pass, the wisdom that Jesus demonstrated in the temple grows and develops. Everyone seems to love him. He dazzled the teachers in the temple. They were amazed at his understanding and his answers. He is lauded by angels, shepherds, Simeon, Anna and many others in Luke's gospel. Later in Luke's gospel (23:21-22), God's expresses pleasure with Jesus when he comes to be baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan river and the heavens open and a dove descends upon Jesus, and God's voice booms down from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." And of course we know that Jesus did fulfill his mission of opening the door to God's favor for all people and he did it through an act of suffering that is terrible to contemplate.

            We don't often see Jesus' degree of wisdom or devotion in a twelve year old child. In fact, we may assume it has never happened at any time since then. We can only grasp at straws when we try to think of a modern parallel to the love and devotion to God displayed by little boy Jesus. Perhaps the closest we can get to it is a poem. I regard this poem in light of a terrible scene I witnessed once upon a time in Jerusalem. There is a exhibit with a glass front wall at the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust History Museum in Jerusalem. Behind the glass wall is a room full of little wrinkled leather children's shoes. They are the shoes of children who were killed in the gas chambers of Nazi Germany. This poem was found by the body of a dead child in the concentration camp called Ravensbrook during the Nazi era:

 

            O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will

                        but also those of ill will.

 

            But do not remember all the suffering they inflicted on us

                        remember the fruits we have bought thanks to this suffering

                                    our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, our courage, our generosity,

                                                the greatness of heart which has grown out of all this.

           

            And when they come to judgement

                        let all this fruit which we have born

                                    be their forgiveness.

 

            This is the loving spirit of little boy Jesus as he demonstrated in his teaching in the temple when he was twelve years old; and this is the forgiving spirit that Jesus demonstrated as he was hanging on the cross, as he said in regard to those who were crucifying him, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Here we see that by continuing to pour oneself out in self-giving love even the darkest evil can be transformed into a scene of incredible love. We can do this ourselves, we can walk this path of self-emptying love, by staying soft instead of hardening our hearts, by not tightening up but by relaxing and letting in the energy of God's love flow into us and spill over into the world, into our families, into the heart of the child in each of us, even the oldest adult. In doing so, we may be more like little boy Jesus, who increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor. We may also hear God say of us one day: "You are my beloved child, in whom I am well pleased."

Blessed Among Women

Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon from Luke 1:39-55

at Batesville Presbyterian Church on December 24, 2006

 

            Imagine the conversation between Mary and Elizabeth. Elizabeth is a woman who has been married for many years. She is old enough to be beyond child bearing years. Mary is a recently married woman who is still a teenager. Both of them are kin. Both of them are pregnant. Both of them are ecstatic with joy. Both of them are bearing sons of significance. Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist. Mary is pregnant with Jesus Christ. Both of them are blessed among women.

            When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly,

 

   You're so blessed among women,

      and the babe in your womb, also blessed!

   And why am I so blessed that

      the mother of my Lord visits me?

   The moment the sound of your

      greeting entered my ears,

   The babe in my womb

      skipped like a lamb for sheer joy. (The Message)

 

            And like the babe in Elizabeth's womb, our heart skips a beat from sheer joy. We get this feeling about this time every year. This feeling that something big is happening in the midst of the little ones among us. We get this feeling when we see the innocent children dressed like donkeys and cows, angels and drummer boys, playing their part in the great play of resurrection life that we reenact every year about this time. And we know that Christmas once again has come.

            So we gather in the church sanctuary on Christmas Eve, having overcome many an obstacle just to sit in these pews for less than an hour's time. Hard to get here with the family to feed at home. Presents to be wrapped. Or unwrapped. Food to cook. Phone calls. Laughter. And a few minutes of silent reflection in the sanctuary. Some carols. Some scriptures. Some dressed up children singing. And we know, once again, it is Christmas.

            So we take some time to sit together in the stillness of this day. We join all the faithful of every time and place in anxious terror and hopeful expectation, looking for a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger. What a relief to know that the child is indeed in the manger. What a joy to see once again that God has indeed been born into human history. How happy we are to have it confirmed: We are not alone. We are not all there is. There is more to existence than material things. Even after we die we get to live again.

            It's all there, wrapped in mystery like the Christ child in the manger. The prospect of human suffering. The reality of death. The celebration of life. Baptism. Death. Resurrection.

            When we find baby Jesus we ponder the miracle with Mary then return to our home like the shepherds glorifying and praising God that in Christ's birth myth became fact.

            The birth of God in human history. We never imagined it would happen this way. But let's not get caught analyzing the hows or whys or wherefores. Let's throw reason to the wind. Get down on our knees. And join the heavenly choir in singing:

 

 Come, Thou long-expected Jesus,

            Born to set Thy people free;

 From our fears and sins release us;

            Let us find our rest in Thee.

 

                        Born Thy people to deliver,

            Born a child and yet a King,

Born to reign in us forever,

            Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.

 

By Thine own eternal Spirit

            Rule in all our hearts alone;

By Thine all sufficient merit

            Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

 

            For it is there, at Christ's glorious throne, where we may still find Mary and Elizabeth, blessed among women. There, at the foot of the throne of God, Mary still ponders these things in her heart, ever the mystic mother. And there, by her side, we may imagine, is Elizabeth, the wise old woman whose immortal body shines like the sun and will never fade away. These two women, blesssed among women, point us the way home. Show us the way down the narrow path to salvation. Draw us onward in the inner journey toward the effervescent flaming throne of God that is surrounded by the blazing violet fire of the Holy Spirit. There, at the foot of that throne, is where we want to be on this Christmas Eve.

            Mary and Elizabeth, blessed among women, friends, relatives, strong and loving mothers, show us the way to God's throne, to God's very presence. It is the way that we already know. It is the way that begins with birthing a child in a manger in an obscure town in the Middle East. It is the way that produces one son who lives like a desert hermit and another son who is accused of partying with prostitutes. It is the way that rears one son to be a prophet and another son to be the King of Israel. It is a way of great joy in watching these sons grow in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. It is a way of great sorrow for Elizabeth when her son, John the Baptist, is beheaded by Herod the Great and his head presented on a platter to a woman of power and questionable morality. It is a way of sorrow for Mary as she stands at the foot a crucifixion scene in which her son plays the role victim while he is mercilessly ridiculed by a crowd of religious leaders and foreign soldiers of the occupation forces.

            Mary and Elizabeth, blessed among women, bless us with the joy that come from watching the children grow. Mary and Elizabeth, blessed among women, help us accept the pain that comes from watching our child suffer. Mary and Elizabeth, help us to experience the joy that comes from transcending all human pain and being reunited with God in this life and in the life to come. Mary and Elizabeth, blessed among women, move on over a little bit and let us sit down beside you — there, where you are, at the foot of the throne of the everliving God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — for there is a Christ-child waiting to be born in our hearts today.